Portal In: Roddy Gayle Jr.
Michigan Basketball can field a team again! As expected, SG Roddy Gayle has become the third transfer, and fourth commitment to Dusty May since Friday. This time it's also at the expense of a rival. Like Tony Alford says, if you won't ever beat them again, join 'em.
Like some of the other guards that May has picked up, Gayle profiles as an efficient creator with good size, good defense, and an elevated turnover rate that will hopefully come down when playing with a lot of other guys who can generate their own offense. Unlike the others, Gayle gets to the foul line a ton.
He was also part of a team-wide run of bad luck on threes that got Chris Holtmann fired on Valentine's Day before reversing itself in time to get Jake Diebler assistant hired. That improvement didn't include Gayle, who shot 29% (23/78) behind the arc before February 14th and 24% (6/25) afterwards. Add his 43% (21/49) from his freshman year to get a 33% (50/152) career shooter thus far. Before that Gayle was a top-50 prospect whom 247's Jerry Meyer compared to Josh Christopher.
Has a college ready body with good length (long arms) and great strength. Is a powerful athlete who thrives in traffic. Handles contact extremely well and loves to dish out the contact. Shoots the ball well off the catch with an efficient and smooth low release. Also scores with pull up jumpers where he elevates and can also score at the rim. Most notably, he has a niche as a potent post up player. Ball handling is solid and efficient. Has the ability to deliver to the open man. Rebounds his position quite well and can ignite the fast break. Has potential to be a formidable and versatile defender. Overall has a well rounded game that impacts a game in virtually all facets.
Like we said on the pod, he should be a useful Big Ten starter with a lot of upside if his shooting returns to form. Matt D will have a more detailed scouting report in a few days (I'm holding off his Jones Hello for this).
The roster, with unannounced predictions in brackets:
PG: Tre Donaldson (Jr), Durral Brooks (Fr), [Lorenzo Cason (Fr)]
SG: Roddy Gayle (Jr), George Washington III (So), Justin Pippen (Fr)
Also SG: Rubin Jones (Sr*), [Nimari Burnett (Jr*)], [Jace Howard (Sr*)]
PF: Will Tschetter (Jr)
C: [Vlad Goldin(Sr*)], Danny Wolf (Jr)
May still needs to add a power forward and could theoretically push Jones to 6th man if they can find another impact guard.
April 22nd, 2024 at 10:58 AM ^
No chance we get this much talent in the portal if Juwan was still here. How can anyone not be optimistic about the way the May era has gone so far?
April 22nd, 2024 at 11:16 AM ^
Ecstatic with Dusty thus far. He hasn't even been on the job 30 days. Juwan's coaching this past season, in fairness, was impacted by his heart condition, but he seemed to have no strategy the year before even with two lottery picks and Hunter.
I remember seeing FAU make the Finals and was impressed by Dusty's offensive game plans and how his teams adjusted during the games. I certainly expect at least NIT this year. We need to be patient with the rebuild because this program is in the same spot as it was when JB came in. But the portal makes it easier than it was in 2007.
April 22nd, 2024 at 12:17 PM ^
With Goldin and one more add, NIT is probably the floor, with NCAA tournament in the realm of possibility now depending on how well the pieces gel. There were definitely teams in the tournament with less talent than this one assuming you get Goldin and another add. Though obviously there should be patience if they don't make it but it is definitely becoming more reasonable to think they have a shot.
April 22nd, 2024 at 11:20 AM ^
I'm not counting my eggs before they've hatched. We have multiple sophomore transfer commits at this point and I'm not gonna assume admissions has accepted their credits until these guys are officially announced
April 22nd, 2024 at 11:26 AM ^
Sophomores can get in.
This all has been explained so many times.
April 22nd, 2024 at 11:01 AM ^
Brian keeps saying Wolf won't play the 4. If not, then I would think we need another 2 power forwards, not 1. Cannot just roll with Tschetter.
April 22nd, 2024 at 11:13 AM ^
Tschetter is a serviceable backup 4 and a poor starting 4. Mostly due to his defense. 1 more player at the 4 is fine. May has run 4 guard lineups in the past. Remember that Johnell Davis played the 4 at FAU.
April 22nd, 2024 at 11:27 AM ^
I remember Novak playing the 4 for us. That worked ok until we ran into Oklahoma and Blake Griffin. I’d like more bigs on the roster just for flexibility if nothing else.
April 22nd, 2024 at 11:29 AM ^
This is accurate, but let's be real: if we had a big 4 against Griffin, it probably wouldn't have mattered all that much.
TBF, there's only a few all-time Michigan greats that could have hung with Griffin that year. This is the same guy who played 13 years in the NBA (just retired last week, in fact), was injured for half of them, and still put up an all-time rookie season, a handful of All-Star/all-NBA seasons, and warehouses full of highlight reels.
April 22nd, 2024 at 11:46 AM ^
We need an athletic 4 to play off of Wolf. Assuming we land Goldin, i dont see us playing them both at the same time.
April 22nd, 2024 at 12:32 PM ^
Jace Howard is more of a 4 than a 2. I am not saying he is the solution but he could back up Tschetter at the 4 if they get no one else. He did an admirable job guarding Cofi Cockburn a couple of seasons ago when Dickinson was out so he is certainly has some of the requisite measurables you hope for at that spot.
April 22nd, 2024 at 11:02 AM ^
I didn't watch enough of last year's disaster to know enough, but is Nimari Burnett better than Jones. I understand it isn't a given that Burnett is back.
Also Terrance Williams - he had played well in 2023 and 2022. Is there a chance we comes back to elevate the PF position?
April 22nd, 2024 at 11:10 AM ^
My opinion is Burnett should be better, Jones is better.
April 22nd, 2024 at 11:11 AM ^
I'm just glad they'll have decent sized gaurds on the team next season. That alone is a breath of fresh air.
Also, if Nimari sticks around I'm fine with the current rotation 1-3. He can compete with Rubin Jones and Roddy Gayle at the 2 and 3. The loser becomes the 6th man. I'd be fine with that.
April 22nd, 2024 at 11:29 AM ^
Yeah, I noted this elsewhere but UM had a run of small-ish guards who could be moved around; that's not the case with guys like Donaldson and Gayle.
April 22nd, 2024 at 11:12 AM ^
Love this pick up! Not only are we needling Ohio once again but it's a high quality player as well.
April 22nd, 2024 at 11:16 AM ^
Finally the Justin Boren trade is finalized.
April 22nd, 2024 at 11:43 AM ^
Sorry but a hoops recruit isn't the same thing. When a starting OSU football player transfers to us, then I would claim the trade was finalized.
April 22nd, 2024 at 11:21 AM ^
This makes me wonder if Dug would have really fit in under the new direction. Nothing against him personally since he did seem motivated even when we had the worst line-up ever around him.
If the tutor support for the players is anything like the 1980s when I was a student and my Macro Econ TA was a tutor for the FB team, there is no excuse for an athlete to get into trouble with grades. At least get Cs.
April 22nd, 2024 at 12:52 PM ^
Some people don't want to play school!
April 22nd, 2024 at 11:22 AM ^
LET DUSTY COOK
April 22nd, 2024 at 11:27 AM ^
The depth chart just looks more balanced right now than it did toward the end under Howard, and that's a nice sign of optimism. Again, there will be bumps along the way but this looks like a competitive team in this conference as it stands.
April 22nd, 2024 at 11:30 AM ^
I see this as a pretty big get. Should be our starting off guard, no? Have been skeptical that May was getting the resources that he needed, but the last three days have been encouraging. Effective forward play, pretty obviously, needs to be the next place of emphasis. I think that an unfettered Tschetter can get us some points, but on a Big Ten-contending team, he should probably be the third forward off of the bench.
April 22nd, 2024 at 11:44 AM ^
Add the Bama forward and make Vlad official, you've got a good starting 5 to work with with intriguing backups at every spot too.
April 22nd, 2024 at 11:44 AM ^
Add the Bama forward and make Vlad official, you've got a good starting 5 to work with with intriguing backups at every spot too.
April 22nd, 2024 at 11:46 AM ^
A couple crystal balls rolled in this morning as well for Alabama transfer Sam Walters. Was on campus this week.
April 22nd, 2024 at 12:06 PM ^
Great news! The kid can shoot, excellent compliment to Vlad.
April 22nd, 2024 at 12:19 PM ^
He’s a better cheddar.
April 22nd, 2024 at 12:50 PM ^
Great trade of Andrew Dakich for Roddy-
I really don't miss hearing from Dan Dakich
Whoa... Am I delusional but seems like May is only recruiting Left and shooters...
Jones, Gayle, Walters, Goldin I think a few of the others are too...
Is Dusty only taking lefties? I think that's five if you include wolf, Walters, Goldin.
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