Michigan bound apparently

That's the chatter and he looks like a good pickup. That would settle the backcourt nicely with two guys in their final year, Zeb and the two true freshmen.

Really the only thing left that would be a potential concern is backup at the 5. Diabate is going to be a beast but asking a freshman to play both the 4 and 5 is a challenge -- just look at Brandon Johns' career arc. They can go small with Johns or even Terrence Williams, but at some point you're going to need beef. Plus I think the best case for Johns is that he's a 4, he plays as a 4 and exclusively as a 4.

Oh yeah, Michigans going to be damn good either way.

Devante Jones
Eli Brooks
Caleb Houstan
Brandon Johns
Hunter Dickinson

Jones committed, hype

Juwans model of elite frosh mixed with transfers seems very good

Obviously won't know for a while if the second act is as successful as the first but it seems like the staff can make an honest assessment of the roster and any potential weaknesses and then go out an get a guy -- maybe "the" guy -- to shore it up. Being able to do that is impressive, to me anyway.

On paper anyway this looks like an ideal fit, Jones can be a ball-dominant lead guard if they need that, if Frankie Collins is ready he can play off, he can come off the bench and provide a lift on both ends -- I mean, one thing I expect with Juwan is that he's honest with potential transfers, he's not going to guarantee Jones 30 minutes a game or anything.

Speaking of transfer guards, I saw on twitter that Jaaron Simmons graduated with a masters degree yesterday. He's been on the staff as a video analyst, good to see him taking advantage of his time in Ann Arbor, fully expect him to get an assistant job somewhere soon and start working his way up.

If there are any Diabate doubters out there, spend 60 seconds and watch the clips in today's Mgoblog post on power forwards.

We finally had a guy who shouldn't leave early not leave early. Sweet.

Nice to get that first win but yeah they have a ton of stuff to work on

Agree. Buffalo is a good, experienced team, but gotta bury a team like that when you're up 18+ in the first half.

Diabate and Houstan are gonna be real good, we're gonna be a phenomenal defensive team this year.

Houstan looks like a great all around player. I had always read he is more of a shooter than anything, but he looks like a stud. Diabete looked great too. Michigan is deep. Excited to see Juwan go to work with this roster.

It's also pretty amazing that Dickinson has entered the Garza Zone this year. You watch the entire game and you say "I mean he had kind of a quiet game tonight" and you look at the box score and he has 27 points on 21 shot equivalents.

At least we're officially a football school again.

We're now at the point of the season where we can safely conclude that this is a bad team, it's headed for a bottom third of the B1G finish and no tournament. So it goes.

But if you're not down on things enough, go read the "Howard coaching eval" thread on the mgoblog board and fill yourself with RAGE over the unbelievable stupidity of the people posting.

Team is in a real rough spot.

Houstan hasn't panned out, guard play has been horrible, and we don't have Wagner to paper over all the defensive mistakes like last year.

The lack of athleticism (other than Diabate) is glaring. It's certainly possible to play good defense without great athletes but it sure looks ugly when you have average athletes and they don't have it down.

Definitely were banking a lot on Houstan as a shooter. The offense isn't that far off, just need a guy on the wing who can shoot (plus Eli playing off ball as a 2nd shooter). Unfortunately there isn't a guy on the roster who can fill that role consistently. I thought we might see a bunch of Nunez against Rutgers but instead we got Jace Howard?! Howard acquitted himself well but he's not a shooter.

Yeah it's really making it apparent just how good some of the guys from last year's team were.

Chaundee Brown is an upgrade from Houstan in every way and he only played 51% of minutes last year.

Last year we had 3 guys who shot over 40% from three on high volume. This year we have 1 guy shooting above 37% and he's attempted 24 threes in 13 games. Lack of shooting just allows everyone to collapse on Dickinson and we don't have good enough secondary options to drive scoring.

That and we still haven't figured out how to handle basic defensive assignments this late in the season is concerning.

I have a bad feeling the game against Sparty is going to be particularly unpleasant, in part because among the many other defensive failings it seems like we're notably bad at transition defense. They're going to be able to run.

We got spoiled last year with a veteran team (outside of Dickinson). I hope the talent we do have sticks around long enough to mature.

And it would make lots of heads asplode to learn that the one guy is ... DeVante Jones at 45.8% (I had to look it up, even though I guessed correctly).


Telling that only two guys on the roster even attempt two+ 3PA per game - Brooks and Houstan. No confidence.

I just don't know how it's possible for a P5 team to be this bad at shooting. Truly mind-bottling.

Legit zero idea how Caleb Houstan was a 5* recruit.

Dude has no ability to do anything on the basketball court other than catch and shoot.

Some of it, I think, is that people expect him to be a 3 because of his rep as a shooter. He's not a 3, especially on defense. Assuming he's back next year I expect him to get stronger and he'd fit a lot better as a 4. In fact we'd probably have fewer complaints about the rest of his game if he was playing the 4 - he has a good handle for a stretch 4, can shoot when open, can rebound a little. Might be a little undersized and he's not strong enough yet, but he could be functional on defense as a 4.

Not his fault that there is literally nobody on the roster to play the 3, at least nobody that should be out there. Tbh I once had a little hope that Zeb or Bufkin would be able to hack it as a "3" in a three guard lineup but no more.

It's frustrating that we went from a team full of interchangeable wings that allowed us a ton of lineup and positional flexibility (Wagner, Livers, Brown, and somewhat Williams) to a team with almost no lineup flexibility.

Diabate has shown the most upside of the freshmen this year, he gets a little more aggressive on offense and stops committing dumb fouls and he'd be a very good college player. Houstan has been a big disappointment, Brooks has def taken a step back this year, and none of the guards have emerged to be a dependable force this late in the season.

Frustrating to go from a 1 seed with a great recruiting class and a returning All-American big to a lost season but here we are.

Yup. Nice that they covered the Kenpom spread on the road against Purdue but they'd need to start (actually) winning a lot to make the tourney and that just isn't happening. Feels like a couple games under .500 finish in conference, no OOC wins, lucky to be .500 overall and make the NIT.

I don't think anyone predicted that the roster construction would be such a mess. I know there were a few questions about whether they could shoot enough, but nothing about the lack of flexibility. If anything the focus was on flexibility that looked good on paper, like Diabate's ability to play the 4 and the 5, with Dickinson or alone.

Hopefully there will be slot(s) available to bring in some athleticism, defense and shooting for next season.