nojel eastern

In the month-plus since former Purdue wing Nojel Eastern announced his intention to transfer to Michigan, rumors have persisted that he wouldn't wind up on the team. Today, the rumblings proved true, as Eastern announced that an issue with transferring credits prevented him from gaining admittance to the university:

Stay tune...... pic.twitter.com/n0GFSfFD7O

— Nojel Eastern (@NEblessed_20) June 17, 2020

Eastern would've been a defensive stopper for this team if he were granted a waiver for 2020-21. Now Michigan awaits a decision on an immediate waiver for their other non-grad transfer, former Wake Forest wing Chaundee Brown, another plus defender with finishing ability. It's worth noting, given Michigan never officially announced Eastern's transfer, that they haven't put out an official word on Brown's, either—Juwan Howard mentioned both players at a recent press availability but that evidently didn't mean Eastern had been cleared.

Meanwhile, the NCAA announced earlier this month that their deadline for early entrants to remove their name from the NBA Draft is August 3rd, so there could still be a lengthy wait before Isaiah Livers makes a decision about returning for his senior season.

Howard has one open scholarship to use while waiting on Livers's choice. While the transfer market is most picked down to the bone, there are a couple interesting names that have appeared on the board in recent weeks, like Florida guard Andrew Nembhard and St. John's wing LJ Figueroa. It'd be nice to balance out the roster with a traditional transfer; at the moment there are five open scholarships for next year even if you pencil in Brown getting denied a waiver and everyone else with eligibility coming back.

It seems more likely that Michigan will either try to land a 2021 prospect who reclassifies to 2020 or sit on the scholarship. The timing for everything this year is making roster construction difficult.

There's no content after the jump.

Moving towards a semester. This is a development:

BREAKING: @UMich Provost Susan Collins: “We are very optimistic that the University of Michigan will have a public health-informed, in-residence academic year.”

A change from “cautiously optimistic” in previous statements, one day after @michiganstateu announces in-person fall.

— Calder Lewis (@CalderLewisTMD) May 28, 2020

Michigan is still being more circumspect than MSU, which just announced it would be open this fall, and Notre Dame, which announced it would have a fall semester that ended at Thanksgiving. MSU is also ending in-person classes at Thanksgiving and finishing the rest of the semester online.

Still, everything is pointing towards a return. For the purposes of this website this means they'll try to play football like everyone else. The broader impact on the university is currently projected to be… not that bad, actually:

Not much new from Pres. Schlissel, although it now looks like the predicted losses ("for the year ahead" which I take to mean the calendar year) are in the range of $22M to $192M, which is much more optimistic than earlier projections.

— peter honeyman (@peterhoneyman) May 28, 2020

Although that's quite a range. We'll see how it goes. Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. The current plans at MSU:

Stanley said. Physical distancing and wearing face masks on campus, as well as strict limitations and regulations on large gatherings are being imposed, he said.

The punch in the mouth is coming from Rick's, et al., this fall.

[After THE JUMP: More on the transfers]

Let's remember some guys, 1970s Kentucky edition. Run, don't walk, to this reminiscence about a reminiscence about the 1954 Kentucky-Tennessee game:

There's a miraculous punt. You know you want it.

[After THE JUMP: you can want college football to happen but I don't think the virus is going to cooperate.]