We have a coach. Now let's hit the portal.
As I understand it, the ground rules are we can target grad transfers and probably guys who have completed only one year. For grad transfers, I'm looking at guys with four years played, with 20-21 being a covid year.
First, a look at FAU's roster and who could become available.
FAU Roster
Johnell Davis
A senior out of Gary, IN, Davis was the Owls' best player. He's a fringe NBA prospect who doesn't seem to show up in mock drafts. Davis is a 6'4" shooting guard who scored 18.2 ppg and shot 41.4% from three. We want him, clearly.
But I cannot mention Davis without noting he is, uh, not clutch.
Here he is in Round 1 versus Memphis last year. He's the one who falls on the ground before Nick Boyd hits the game-winner.
Here he is not getting a crucial bucket in last year's Final Four which allows SDSU to hit the buzzer beater.
Here he is at the end of regulation this year in Round 1 against Northwestern doing, um, I don't know what this is and neither does Bill Raftery.
Davis also missed a shot on the previous possession that could have gone a long way to closing out the game.
All of which makes you wonder about Dusty May's end of game coaching as well, but that's another story, I suppose.
Vladislav Goldin
The team's second leading scorer is Goldin who started in Russia as a wrestler. Then he grew real tall (7'1") and moved to Connecticut so he could play basketball. He went to Texas Tech for a year before transferring to FAU where he has been for the last three years. This past season he averaged 15.7 ppg, 6.9 rpg, and 1.6 bpg in 25 mpg.
He played more like 28-31 mpg down the stretch but I expect Goldin needs his rest. The other forwards on the team were 6'8" and 6'9" so it's not like Dusty had some other super tall guys coming in. Goldin is not a shooter. He has attempted zero three pointers in his life and is 66.3% from the line, though that is up from 59.1% the year before. He's 67.3% from the floor. My assumption is that's all right by the basket.
So, not an All-Big Ten center but would be quite the upgrade in the low-post from, um, the nothing currently on our roster.
Alijah Martin
The team's third leading scorer out of Mississippi, the 6'2" guard's shooting has dipped slightly each year for the last three seasons. Two years ago as a sophomore, he averaged 13.9 ppg and shot 45.8% and 40% from three. This past year his numbers were 13.1ppg/41.4%/33.8%. But he's a strong defender with 1.6 spg and 5.9 rpg.
Nick Boyd
The team's fourth leading scorer out of New York, the 6'3" point guard has started the past couple years but only plays 24 mpg. Boyd played in 20-21 but redshirted in 21-22, so he should still have two years of eligibility. In his first two years of play he shot 40% from three but last year he only shot 34.1%. But he did improve to 9.3 ppg and improved his free throw shooting from 62.2% to 84.2%.
Giancarlo Rosado
A 6'8" senior out of Florida, Rosado acted as the backup center. He's more of a mid-range shooter than Goldin but still not a three-point shooter. His usage and ppg have gone down the past few years as Goldin's has gone up. He finished this year with just 4.8 ppg in 12.6 mpg. But his production also noticeably decreased this year when he returned in mid-February after missing a month with a knee injury.
FAU Freshmen and Recruits
The 2023 class had two guards, both of whom seem like low-3 stars and redshirted this year. This year's class seems about the same (with three guards instead of two). One of them though, Elijah Elliott, was at least given a national ranking by 247 of #185. He's a 6'2" guard out of Wichita and he had an offer from Kansas State. (For comparison, Durral Phat Phat Brooks is #164, although his composite is #195 compared to Elliott's composite of #188.)
Grad Transfers in the Portal
Again, I'm assuming these guys are grad transfers based on them being in school for four years.
CBS Sports has a list of their Top 25 Transfers based on who is currently in the portal. There are a fair number of four-year guys. You should recognize the one at the top of the list.
Cliff Omoruyi--Rutgers
In case you can't picture him, let me help you out. He's the 6'11" dude who rebounded and blocked all the shots for Rutgers for the last several years. St. John's appears to be the favorite right now. Regardless, he's already being courted by everyone and it seems unlikely Dusty will have much of a shot.
Darlinstone Dubar--Hofstra
A 6'8" (or 6'6", it's unclear) wing who started at Iowa State before going to Hofstra. He shot 39.9% from three and had 6.8 rpg and 17.8 ppg. Doubtful that would translate to the Big Ten at quite the same level, but hey! A wing!
Tyrin Lawrence--Vanderbilt
A 6'4" guard, he's not much of a shooter (39.9%) but he did score 13.8 ppg and can defend (1.4 spg). Since he was in the SEC this should translate.
Gibson Jimmerson--St. Louis
A 6'5" guard, somehow he's eligible for a 6th year. His specialty is three pointers but his percentage dipped to 35.9% this past year. For his career it's 39.5% and he did manage 15.8 ppg.
Amari Williams--Drexel
First of all, he's from Nottingham. As in, England. Spent four years at Drexel as a big time post defender at 6'10". But...Drexel. It's doubtful he'd match his 12 ppg. Maybe he could still rebound a little. He had 7.8 rpg.
Mikeal Brown-Jones--UNC-Greensboro
A 6'8" power forward, Brown-Jones spent two years at VCU before transferring to UNC-G. This past year he suddenly attempted 58 threes, way above his norm. He made 25 for 43.1%. He scored 18.9 ppg.
Freshmen in the Portal
If you spent only one year in school, you can't lose that many transfer credits when transferring into Michigan. Thus, these should still be considered options.
Brandon Garrison--Oklahoma State
Garrison, at 6'11", was a Top 50 recruit. He doesn't seem like he'd really consider Michigan, probably.
Kanaan Carlyle--Stanford
A 6'3" guard, Carlyle was a 4-star recruit. He missed the first month for academic reasons (curious) but he averaged 11.5 ppg. On the downside, his assist/TO ratio is 2.7/2.9 and he shot 38.6% from the floor. Nevertheless, there's upside.
Andrej Stojakovic--Stanford
Peja's kid. Another 4-star guard from Stanford, but he's 6'7". Again, none of the stats are great yet, but he did get 7.8 ppg. And he's Peja's kid so, come on.
Jacob Meyer--Coastal Carolina
A nobody recruit out of Kentucky who went to Coastal Carolina. As a 6'2" guard he shot 40.2% from three and scored 15.7 ppg. Now he's looking to take a step up, presumably.
Kaleb Glenn--Louisville
A 4-star 6'6" forward leaving Louisville. Not a big time contributor for a bad Louisville team.
Curtis Williams--Louisville
Another 4-star leaving Louisville. Surely someone on this board knows all about him; he's from Brother Rice. A 6'5" wing, he didn't appear to have much (or any) interest from either Michigan or MSU, but did get offers from Maryland and Alabama. Mildly better numbers than his teammate Glenn with 5.3 ppg.
Layden Blocker--Arkansas
A 6'2" PG, not sure he'd have much interest in Michigan but he was a high 4-star. He played sporadically.
Michael Nwoko--Miami
A 4-star 6'10" center who drew interest from the likes of Harvard, Cal, Vanderbilt, and Northwestern, and ended up at...Miami. He played sparingly and seems like a typical freshman big.
The Michigan Guys
I mean, Dug and Reed are considered highly rated transfers. May as well re-recruit them to come back if you can.
FWIW, I tried making this a diary. Site kept giving me an error.
Kinda never understood the “this should be a diary” crowd. It’s like saying you put in too much good work. Also, an OP may want their post to senesce quicker than a diary. 🤷♂️
/end mini rant.
Thanks for putting this together, excellent post.
"This should be a diary" is usually meant a compliment - they're saying that the OP wrote a good, long post, which deserves to be on the sidebar longer than a typical message board post will last.
Thanks for all the research... i was wondering why this wasn't a diary? Would hate to see all that work get buried behind new topics.
E'ERBODY IN THE PORTAL
GETTIN' NIL-ZY
This is the other fun time. The most fun is winning a championship. (Go, Blue!)
The other fun is when the coach is new, the future might be bright, and—thanks to the portal—any player might be available. Like a fantasy league for real. Sorta real.
Good thing you're not the recruiting coordinator.
"Now let's take a look at this guy we need failing miserably"
no doubt, great post but that first listing was a real, 'well hello, sunshine'.
Does anyone have a comprehensive list of the status of every player currently on Michigan's roster?
It's been widely posted on the MGoBoard (and elsewhere) that Reed, Dug, and YoYo are in the transfer portal, what about everyone else with remaining eligibility?
GWIII was the first to the portal.
Terence Williams seemed like he was ready to leave but he hasn't entered the portal and does have one more year he could use.
Burnett, Tschetter, and Jace Howard are still on the team. I've been assuming Jace will leave but who knows.
Yes Jace, please leave, thanks to you we lost Camp Sanderson.
I wonder if Sanderson would consider coming back if May reached out to him?
Warde, who I have defended, is still here. Sanderson isn’t coming back while Warde is here.
Please God no on Twill or Jace.
Outstanding work
Though it sure sounds like whole portal is open to Michigan now
Though it sure sounds like whole portal is open to Michigan now
Why, did something with admissions change or did they promise May something?
Promised May. A couple reporters including Goodman(I know) have stated there were assurances with standards
I can’t wait to hear about the first transfer credit battle between President Ono and the respective college blue hair.
I mean there generally isn't an issue getting guys in if they are grad transfers or freshmen so you can in fact bring in even as is, you just have to target the right guys. I mean on paper even without Love, it looked like UM had brought in some decent transfers last year but obviously it didn't actually pan out.
Right. That's why I was listing the freshmen and the seniors. But basketballjones is saying May was told there won't be the same roadblocks to guys like Love and Shannon in the future.
Let's hope so Henson, Michigan admissions need to be less arrogant and make athletics a different category because let's face it, we're not going to compete in an elite fashion if we keep this shit up.
I'm not saying to totally give in but damn, make it a bit less stringent.
Hard disagree. Love and Shannon had the same issue: plenty of time in school to graduate with a bachelor's degree. They did not do that. Michigan will not allow a transfer to complete less than 60 credits at Michigan to graduate.
Juwan was expecting to get Love and Shannon as grad transfers, but neither graduated yet. UNC and Texas Tech did not help their student athletes graduate on time, so here we are.
Illinois and Arizona made exceptions so that Shannon and Love have undergrad degrees from schools they had less than 12 credits at.
I do not want Michigan to become the diploma mill these schools are. Both freshmen and sophomores who are pace to graduate can transfer to Michigan if in good standing. They can finish their last 60+ credits at Michigan and graduate.
Agreed. Michigan shouldn’t become a mercenary program.
Come on man, these are football and basketball players, not the creme de La creme of academia, who the fuck are we kidding?
Get over yourselves with this arrogant shit. Especially when you consider all of the worthless degrees out there that people have while not being able to get a job in that "field".
Lol. Have you seen some of the athletes that have come through?? You blind cool
It's pretty wild that schools are letting transfers take 12 credits--one semester!--and receive a degree from that school. I guess it is just an acknowledgement of the reality that the big-ticket athletes are really not students at all. Still weird to see. I think it's almost harder for me to fathom than NIL.
The number of Michigan fans, over the years, who are convinced that "we're not going to compete in an elite fashion if we keep this shit up" ("shit" being alternately defined as a purported failure to pay players or enforce admissions standards), despite all the success of the football team, the basketball team, the hockey team, the baseball team, etc. etc., over the years, continues to amaze me.
Oh, sure, we just won a national football championship, and have been in the championship games in hockey, baseball, and basketball in the past decade. Even Juwan got to the Sweet 16 and the Elite 8!
Fuck, man, where does this panic come from? What other school has had near the success we've had ... and continue to have? Seems to me everything's going damned well, and it's even possible our reputation for high standards is part of the draw of Michigan! Let's not abandon the things that make Michigan special too quickly, can we?
Great post! Good info, thanks for putting this together!
Ideal line up for Michigan next year-
1- Boyd ( FAU)/ Anderson
2- Davis ( FAU)/ Brooks
3- Burnett / transfer
4- Rooths / Tschetter
5- Goldin ( FAU)/ Transfer
3 best players from FAU
-Davis, Boyd, Goldin
2 Michigan players ( both leaders)
- Burnett, Tschetter
3 Michigan recruits ( re recruit Rooths)
- Rooths, Anderson, Brooks
2 Transfer players
A nice balance of players used to the system, players familiar with Michigan, the school, and facilities. With fresh new faces in 3 high level, high character freshman and 2 transfers.
I really don't think Rooths is an option to come back. It was reported he and Dug are close, and he de-committed like an hour after Dug went to the portal. I don't think that was a coincidence and I don't think he is coming back.
If I’m the FAU AD, my first call is to Juwan Howard. A lineup of Dug, GW3, Rooths, transfer to be named later, and Reed can compete in their conference. Or bring in a better player than GW3 and let him provide some shooting off the bench.
That's assuming that all those players are loyal to Howard and would follow him elsewhere. That's far from certain. There were rumors of massive transfers all season long, even when Howard's status for next year was unknown.
LOL
Oh wait you were serious...
Thank you for laying out all this information.
And in defense of Davis from the Memphis game, he was pretty clearly fouled by being hit/grabbed (and likely also tripped) and the refs swallowed their whistles.
But that shot vs Northwestern...yeesh!
Does Oakland have anyone in play? Seems like a great place to start after FAU.
Yes, Oxford native Trey Townsend in particular will be highly coveted if he decides to play a 5th year of college basketball.
Davis, Martin, and Goldin have all been rumored to be coming here and they are all Seniors with one year of eligibility. Let's hope that they are all on track to graduate.
If they come and we get lucky with the rest of the portal I could see us being a .500 team next year.
I remember watching Goldin last year and would love to have him.
Want no part of dug and reed.
Eh, disagree, both guys have some potential and could develop with the right coach creating a good culture. It would worth it for May to at least talk to both of those guys. Get the the best FAU guys to come over, one of the those two guys to come back and a few recruits and you can at least cobble together something that is a decent improvement from this year.
I don't have an issue with Reed, he was just a project who was forced to play earlier than he should've been.
Dug -- who knows. There was obviously some stuff going on behind the scenes.
Doubt Dug has any desire to return here after the ridiculous suspension he received. Not saying he didn't deserve one, but whatever that was that they came up with and never talked about was not the way to handle it.
I can kinda understand your thoughts on Dug - he plays a bit too loose and careless, both of which could possibly be corrected with better coaching. But I’m not sure why you’re down on Reed. He seemed to play well and progress throughout this year. With no one behind him on the bench he never got large breaks during games for resting or for coaching. He is an athletic dude who has a smooth shot and his skills under the rim improved year over year. I’d gladly have both back but especially Tarris.
Reed desperately needs a big man coach to break him of his habit of playing small around the basket. He also needs a defensive scheme that makes sense. But, yes, I would welcome him back.
If only he had an all timer Michigan big man and 15 year NBA player to coach him the last few years...
Oh wait.
Reed looks the part but plays so small and very ineffective. Maybe that can change with coaching but I doubt it.
I'd bring back T Reed in a heartbeat. Nothing that better coaching can't improve.
As for Dug, I think his situation would be a more difficult road. Without knowing all that went on behind the scenes, it seems like maybe a few too many bridges have burned for him to even want to come back.
Does not fit into anything May wants from his bigs.
You know what they say: Dusty Mays bring June portals.
I'd really like to see Michigan focus on Vlad Goldin - not because of his skill as a player but because there is at least a sliver of hope that he is a descendant of Mountain Jews, a group that has gotten short shrift when it comes to basketball.
This sounds like something Lt Aldo Raine would say. +1