Rumor: Olivier Nkamhoua eliminates UM
Apparently down to WVU/Baylor and NIL was the difference per antwright twitter space
Well, when you can't even compete for the 36th or 57th best prospect out there: oof!
He had a pretty good Tourney run for Tennessee and would’ve been slotted in as a starter on this team.
There's plenty to gripe about with Juwan but it really does seem like he's getting consistently handcuffed by the UM administration. Back to back offseasons of losing high-end talent to admissions, a woefully underequipped NIL infrastructure. Warde is an AD with zero redeeming qualities (except for playing for Bo) and has time and again hampered the department with bad PR and poor leadership. It's time to restructure and get serious or roll over and become Northwestern basketball.
We are where we are because he underestimated Collins and brought in too many transfer guards. Then, allowing Jett to half ass on D. Seemed to kill morale, even Hunter was sulking. And then missing on Shannon wrecked it. If Shannon were on the team we would be more than fine.
You've totally reversed caused and effect. Hunter wasn't sulking because of Jett's bad D. Jett was bad on D because Hunter wasn't an effective upperclass leader.
I mean that's not the complete reason Jett was bad on D, it was mostly because he's a freshman. But having no accountability on the team certainly didn't help.
I think it's a bit much to ask HD to guide a 5* one-and-done coach's son. Steve Wojciechowski and Aaron Craft combined would struggle with that kind of player.
Collins got bad advice from his parents. We bought in one guard and Frankie was given every opportunity to start. He was afraid of competition and wanted to make money. Last I knew he kept his name in the Draft and he isn't even a top 150 prospect
Frankie was also buried in the bench for much of the year despite it being beyond obvious we needed him to play, both that year and the next. See also Kobe Bufkin, who stayed but his development was needlessly delayed by a half a year.
I'm sorry, did we watch the same Frankie Collins as a freshman? The one who was 43% from the floor and 17% from three? Who had an almost 1:1 assist to turnover ratio? You wanted more than 11 minutes per game out of him?
I would have preferred someone better but that wasn’t an option, as there are never any guards on the roster. You have to develop the players you have and players get better by playing. Again, see Kobe Bufkin who was “unplayable” until he got better by playing.
Edit to add: I was mostly saying not playing might have had something to do with Frankie leaving.
One problem was Bufkin was young and barely hit puberty it looked like. His freshman year He couldn't play defense and was so skinny he was pushed around. People forget he was young for his grade and actually could have been a freshman this year. BUT what the staff do to him from year one to year 2 is remarkable he got bigger with the added age and also the nutrition and weight lifting here. Then he blew up and now has the opportunity to be maybe a lottery pick.
In retrospect you think less guards this time last year wouldve been a better idea? If Llewellyn scared off Frankie then Frankie isnt worth having to be honest. That guy was a 2 guard that can kinda play point.
Telling a coach not to carry 3 experienced guards for 80 minutes of game time is nonsense.
I don't disagree that our athletic department and university have seemingly been unnecessarily stingy given we are sitting on the largest alumni base in the world and our athletic program is one of the most lucrative in the world, but we also have to square the fact that Juwan is the guy recruiting these guys and putting them into the system to produce outcomes like this. I don't like it, but Juwan knew Love had credit problems. He knew Kante's academics, and he knew Shannon might have difficulty transferring (once his TT coach acted like a turd). He targeted these guys, and not others.
On top of these choices, he also hasn't been able to establish a clear team identity or recruit or develop guards (which is kind of the whole shooting match in college). Nor has been able keep dudes like Chaundee Brown, Houston or Diallo around when they clearly aren't ready for the NBA and could benefit from more time (note: I don't blame them for going, but other coaches are able to retain balanced rosters (getting those longer term program stabilizers like Morgan) and greater talent for longer periods of time...look at Zach Edey, Shannon, Izzo every year).
Not just NIL or admission department...program leader has to be accountable at some point. To me, he misses tourney again (which he will with this roster), he has to be out. If he makes tourney, he has to be in, because that would be a miracle and will tell you whether or not he has evolved and learned his lessons or not. Great litmus test year...looking forward to the hair pulling and hand wringing.
Nor has been able keep dudes like Chaundee Brown, Houston or Diallo around
Diabate?
That comment is just wrong. Brown was a senior and was like 23 so him staying wasn't going to help him. Also I am sure he did his best to try and keep Caleb and MD but they wanted to leave and that is not on Juwan. Being a coach that doesn't support his players if he tried to hold them back from there dream. That would in fact hurt recruiting future players. Did Juwan know Love would not get 8n because of some department head, no he did not, and Papa Kante I am sure he would not have went after and ignored other prospects if there was a chance he wasn't going to get in. Use you common sense. As far as Edey he is Hunter except he stayed at his team and didn't chase the money. TS would be here and staying because he didn't like his draft feedback. If he was guaranteed a first Rd pick he would have left. No guarantees were offered to him. And Izzo don't even bring that scum bag up. His guys also tested the waters but got no promises to be drafted so they came back. Each situation is different and dependent on the families struggles and if they get a guarantee to be drafted. Jordan Morgan was an average player who stayed 4 years because he didn't have the talent to go pro. He also wasn't any good his first year either and was a lowly rated recruit. Since he has been here we have a Big Ten Ship, a Big Ten tourney ship an Elite 8 appearance and 2 sweet 16 buy he hasn't had any success. Look if we had NIL and let players in that wanted to come here we would be talking very highly about the BBall program. Just the fact that some department heads and one dick coach at TT stunted this team.
"Did Juwan know Love would not get 8n because of some department head, no he did not"
Did Juwan know Love wouldn't be able to transfer in more then 60 credits? Yes, yes he did... because no one is allowed to.
Exactly. Too many excuses. He either knew and thought he could change the system or he was ignorant to the policy. Neither very smart if all of your eggs are in the love basket.
I'd love to have Caleb Love and Papa Kante on the team, and I think its great if Juwan is pushing for admissions change (is he?) and blue chips (he should), but at the same (and for a long) time, he has had to grow the program and get a new identity post-Beilien (he hasn't). Can't try to get one and done guys, whose "one" is substandard, and then STILL have an empty cabinet. The programs winning right now have a mix and a balance Heck, look at SDSU from last year with all of their grown azz men and an Ex Michigan guy at the helm in Dutcher. They don't have NIL or opportunities for athletes like we do, they don't have superstars like we do. They were in the final game.
Where are the big uglies you'd expect Howard to grow from ground up? Where is that power forward not ripe for the NBA but tearing it up in the BigTen (TWill? Yikes). Roster building, balance and management is one of the key skills a D1 coach has to have and some part of our organization is broken on this front. I love Big Nook and spent time with him in school (great guy), but need to hold him professionally accountable, just like we did with Harbaugh (and look at those results and evolution he went under).
Not making the tournament with Jett and Dickinson on the team last year was unacceptable and a failure. He can do better on all fronts. I hope he does, but we can't sugar coat how badly it is going on all fronts right now. We were "the" team for a time there...we are bottom half BigTen team now (maybe near bottom this year).
Also the blasphemy about Morgan is ridiculous. He was a very good 4 year player for us. Again, you are measuring based on NBA careers, not what he contributed to the teams he was on while at Michigan. He helped those teams and added great veteran presence and toughness. Not everyone is an All American. That is kind of the point.
Maybe the admin isn't helping, but Juwan's also been here for 4 years and recruiting guys who are borderline to get in is partly on him too.
OTOH, do we really want to take someone whose deciding factor is NIL dollars?
if we want the program to compete in modern basketball, then yes
Take a look around, every kid wants paid. NIL would have kept Hunter at home then leaving for Kansas. I would say yes.
For one year transfers, why not?
This is 60 percent on Howard and 40 percent on Warde for his stupid NIL policies.
How is a young man deciding to go w the higher bidder even .1% on Howard?
No I have it on good authority that it's 11% on Howard, 14% on Manuel, 33% on Harbaugh, 18% on Ono, 2% Milk Fat and 22% chance of precipitation.
Drink whole milk or GTFO.
2%?
What is this, Russia?
The university is forbidden from paying NIL, or directing NIL payment.
The university can't stop anyone who wants to give NIL from giving to anyone they'd like.
I'd like to crowdsource something:
How would you score Anthony "Ant" Wright's reliability with news and predictions on a scale of 1-10?
(I have no idea, that's why I'm asking.)
Really good to be honest. Not sure if you remember him from his time at Michigan as well.
I'd go with a 9.5 out of 10.
I've tried to forget those years.
Well, he did light up the Blake Griffin Oklahoma team a little bit:
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore/_/gameId/294000044
Possibly his best moment(s) at Michigan, in a losing cause .....
Yeah, I went back and looked, and the records aren't as bad as I thought. There was a 10-22 and a 15-17 year, but they made the tournament and won a game or two in the tournament two of the years (0.500 in the Big Ten each tournament year).
Wright averaged 5, 2 and 1.5 ppg at Michigan. My recollection is that he shot a bunch, was a streaky shooter and didn't play much defense but that was a long time ago. Seems to have established a niche for himself after college so good for him.
It's not just Ant Wright
I didn't ask if anyone else had the news.
No no its all fine. Just sit on your hands its all good. Its not like retaining the best baseball coach we can get and hard passing on $3mil while sitting on a $100 surplus. Because..
Checks notes...
Hmm not paying our players that is not it. Hiring more admin staff?
Oh yeah UM cant be to baseball what Cincy is to football or Gonzaga is to basketball because spring is cold. All this money and all we do is shit down our pants.
When other bloggers are dancing and singing there way through anonymity Ant is actually doing all the hard work and refuses to share and turns away the other bloggers when they ask the source for themselves.
Found ant, or ant’s momma
He's an over the top troll which makes his predictions look worse. Everyone gets stuff wrong but he looks dumber when does so it looks worse. Blaming it all on NIL isn't something a guy like Ant can actually know for sure. It could also be NIL plus with Love not being there not being a competitive team.
Before he came to visit the rumors out there were that the best NIL would most likely secure his commitment. RayJ to Baylor had NIL money and WVU has been paying BB players a lot this year. Michigan need to figure it out quickly or we won't be able to get many players through transfer. We are already limited due to the School and add in NIL and we are at a huge disadvantage already.
It's cheddar time
I think it's YOYO time.
Never in the history of histories has a guy been expected to make such a leap.
He had 12 points the entire season. 6 behind Barnes an absolutely unplayable player just waiting to down transfer.
He could be something in two seasons but 5 pts per game would be a huge jump next season.
My hope, not my expectation, is that YoYo makes a Wagnerian leap. If you believe YoYo was limited by injuries last season, it’s not that big a leap. Mo averaged 2.9 ppg his first season.
https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/moritz-wagner-1.html
With all the holes in the roster, it’s swiss time.
Can someone explain to me how basketball NIL is so much farther behind than football? Why aren't the current collectives just creating a basketball arm of their orgs? I assume the infrastructure would be the same
Donors are far more likely to support football over basketball generally (notice most of the NIL players in basketball don't have strong football programs), but this is even more true at Michigan:
- Collectives like those associated with Valiant were created for football. None of them were created with basketball in mind
- Football has been way more successful. The football team needs the support to maintain success, which is an easier sell than asking for money to juice a mediocre basketball team
- Michigan could just raise enough to make this point moot, but we are not nearly well enough organized for that
Michigan admin and donors alike don't really care about basketball, despite Michigan's fairly rich history of success on the hardwood.
Now that Michigan hoops appears to be really falling behind, I'm guessing it will only get harder and harder to motivate people to funnel their money to a program just hoping to be mediocre.
I think football may be recruiting a bit on success too. There may be more NIL support in football from the AD and university but they are definitely not on the forefront of NIL in football either.
Mentioned LSU and Florida are probably the top teams for Pullin as well.