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Michigan basketball betting on transfers aims to fuel renaissance

Posted on by Kennedy
Michigan basketball betting on transfers aims to fuel renaissance

When Michigan Basketball takes the court Monday night against Cleveland State to open the 2024-25 season, there likely won't be a single player who has previously played a minute for the maize and blue in the starting five.

The Wolverines' starting lineup is instead expected to consist of five transfers: point guard Tre Donaldson (Auburn), shooting guard Roddy Gayle Jr. (Ohio State), wing Rubin Jones (North Texas), power forward Danny Wolf (Yale) and center Vladislav Goldin (Florida Atlantic).

This allows two key returnees, shooting guard Nirmari Burnett and power forward Will Tschetter – both of whom were asked to do too much a season ago – to act as the first wave off the bench. Next in line is 6-foot-1 sharpshooter transfer Sam Walters (Alabama), followed by a trio of talented freshmen – the explosive LJ Cason, veteran Justin Pippen (son of Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen) and the reigning Mr . Basketball Durral from Michigan. “Fat Phat” Brooks.

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Jace Howard, son of former coach Juwan Howard, also provides depth, leadership and program familiarity.

Overall, the Wolverines will have a solid balance of experience, size, passing, shooting and flexibility for first-year coach Dusty May at Crisler Center (8 p.m., Big Ten Network).

“We have a lot of different guys that can be our best player on any given night,” May said after UM’s 95-92 win over Toledo last month, reflecting on his first year in Ann Arbor. “We had two leading scorers (against Toledo) and I can't imagine Danny, Vlad, Tre, Rubin, Nimari, Will and Sam not leading us in scoring in another game.

“It’s a validation of what we thought about the balance of our team.”

The new ones

If these names all sound foreign to you, let's talk a little about those who believed in the program coming off an 8-24 season, the worst in program history.

Donaldson has played 67 games in the SEC over the last two seasons, averaging 6.7 points per game with an assist-to-turnover ratio that was better than last season's 2:1. Gayle, meanwhile, comes from Ohio State University, where he was one of the top scorers. He hit 42.9% of his 3-point shots as a freshman and averaged 13.5 points per game as a sophomore.

Gayle was identified by May as UM's “closer” – he showed some signs of that with seven points (of Michigan's last 13) in the final three minutes of the Wolverines' win over Toledo.

Then there's Jones, who not only played more games than anyone in North Texas basketball history, but was incredibly efficient in doing so, averaging more than 12 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game and a 41.6% shooting rate on three-pointers made on nearly four attempts per game.

“On the championship teams I've been on, there's usually a couple guys that right after the game you're like, 'Man, he just played pretty good,'” May said. “Then you go back and watch the film and say, 'Wow, he made so many invisible plays: the quick swing instead of trying to beat his man every time; or he smashed the window and took on two guys, and that's why (a teammate) got the tip-in.'”

But the real highlight is the frontcourt with the 7-foot players Wolf and Goldin. Wolf was named to the Ivy League's first team last season after posting 14.1 and 9.7 points per game, while Goldin made 67.3% of his shots for FAU last year, averaging 15.7 points and Grabbed 6.9 rebounds per game.

Wolf has been putting in extra work with new strength and conditioning coach Matt Aldred to prepare for his role as an outside hitter.

Everyone, every night

Aside from Donaldson, the other four starters all averaged at least 12 points per game last season, giving May a plethora of options that he's expected to utilize this season. This was evident in two appearances in which the bench (95 points) outscored the starters (93).

“If you look at our bench production – I don't even want to call them bench players because I consider these guys starters – these guys have all performed really well through two games,” May said. “That shows depth that we have thought we had them.”

Tschetter and Burnett are part of it. A season ago, both averaged just under 10 points per game, but also had nights where each reached the 20-point mark.

Meanwhile, Cason, a true freshman, scored 20 points on 6-for-7 shooting (including 4-for-4 on 3s) against the Rockets.

The defense may need some work with so many new faces, but on offense May has vowed to run, run and then run some more. The idea of ​​the offense is positionless basketball: Donaldson is technically the point guard, but he's not the only person expected to be able to generate the Wolverines' offense.

He also won't be the only Wolverine bringing a new sense of hope to the Crisler Center.

“As a coach, when you look at the stat sheet and think, 'Man, we've got to find a way to get him a few more minutes,'” May said. “That's a sign that you have a chance, to be a really good team.

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