CJ Baird is going to light it up- the Feel Good Story of the '20-'21 season… 
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Nunez played some against other teams better players, but he showed nothing more when just as frequently matched up against “mop up players”—for 2 years.
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Best wishes, and we’ll miss you. But it’s time to imagine Nunez taking a sophomore to junior leap! It’s just as likely as Bajema making one or even more. I also assume Howard knew this was likely coming and has been searching for players, but depth has taken a shot if nothing else.
I disagree strongly wth your last point. When Baird played ahead of Bajema at Nebraska, we were 2-6 in the conference, coming off 4 straight losses, 2 at home. A season which, 2 months earlier looked like it might result in a very high NCAA seed was looking like it might turn out to be an NIT finish. Zavier Simpson and Isaiah Livers weren’t available. In those circumstances–most circumstances, but especially those–you do whatever is best to win that game, and not prioritize the future potential of a player if you think it interferes with that.
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Sure, you need to do whatever you believe is best to win the game. I disagree that Baird > Bajema made any tangible impact toward that mission. Baird played 8 empty minutes where he got one rebound and that’s it. But then this goes back to “well Baird was surely significantly better than Bajema in practice” which none of us can prove, so it’s a lose-lose to argue that I disagreed with that move at this point.
It appeared to me that Howard would have pulled someone out of the maize rage to play before resorting to Bajema. Players want to feel as though they’re being invested in, particularly 4-star talents. Instead, the staff sold his shares and he returned the favor. Too bad, a fantastic offensive talent.
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Still think this one hurts. As not ready as Cole might have been a lot can change in a year even in a year like this where there would be less development than normal, it still would have given him some time to develop mentally and physically at least a little.
I would have felt better if it was Jackson and Cole we were depending on as guards off the bench as opposed to to just zeb. Between the two of them it may have been enough or even a pleasant surprise.
Just praying livers stays now,
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Sounds like an indictment on Bajema then.
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I will give the kid credit. He gave it a shot and waited on the hire instead of bailing and refusing to talk to Howard like the other guy.
Feel like he will develop into a nice 4 year player. Same with Castleton. They just didn’t mesh well with the new coaches for whatever reason.
Need to start getting some transfers & 2021 recruits.
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So does Franz switch to #22?
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“You’re speaking to a guy who was a freshman back in the day,” Howard said. “I played right away. Jalen (Rose) played right away. Chris (Webber) played right away. That was because I guess Coach felt and trusted that we were ready to go. You definitely have to earn your playing time in practice.”
“Cole loved the University of Michigan, his teammates, and his experience in the classroom,” Bajema’s former high school coach, Roger DeBoer, told MLive on Tuesday after Bajema entered the transfer portal. “But he felt it’s best for him moving forward to look elsewhere to finish his college career.”
[The 6-7, 175-pounder played in just 10 games as a freshman, earning only seven minutes in Michigan’s final 17 games. At first glance, Bajema’s departure might be met with a shrug, ‘What’s the big deal?’ but as this program has demonstrated time and again, players often make big leaps from their freshman to sophomore seasons, and Bajema had a role to play.
Possessing perhaps the most natural shooting stroke on the team, Bajema was seen as a potential three-point specialist for the Wolverines next year, someone that could have earned 8-12 minutes at the ‘2’ or the ‘3’, spelling projected starters Eli Brooks (at the ‘2’) and Franz Wagner (at the ‘3’). And Michigan could have used the help - the Maize and Blue ranked 141st nationally in 2020 connecting on threes, at just 33.9%, their lowest clip since 2010 (29.7%).
There was some hope Bajema could have been the next Duncan Robinson, shooting better than 40.0% from behind the arc (Robinson made 42.0% from 2016-18, including a ridiculous 45.2% in 2016).
There is no telling where Bajema would have been body-wise (he needed to add 15-20 pounds) or defensively, but from a depth standpoint alone, he was poised to soak up a few important minutes, minutes that now might land with junior Adrien Nunez or freshmen Jace Howard and Terrence Williams.]
This one was posted yesterday morning. Talk about bad timing!
“That’s the story of a lot of freshmen,” Michigan assistant Saddi Washington said shortly after the season abruptly ended. “Making that transition from high school to college, it’s just a different space. Each guy’s learning curve is different.”
“We say ‘hard work is never wasted work,’ and that would define Cole,” Washington said.
It’s never easy for a player to go from the star player one season to a benchwarmer the next. Not only did Bajema deal with that, but he watched Michigan’s other freshman, Franz Wagner, excel.
“Misery likes company,” Michigan assistant Phil Martelli said. “When you’re sitting in your room and ‘woe is me’ and your roommate is not experiencing that, that’s an added layer. And we were all aware of that.”
“It wasn’t about what was wrong with Cole as about the guys in front of him,” Washington said. When Michigan did turn to someone outside the regular rotation for spot minutes in the backcourt, it was typically sophomore Adrien Nuñez.
“The Cole of March was a completely different player than the Cole of September,” Martelli said. “He made a jump. It doesn’t show up to a fan or in a box score, but in the coaching staff that’s a check you can make: He accepted coaching. He may not have liked what was going on, but he didn’t use it as a crutch – he was selfish enough to work on his own game, and we appreciate that.”
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Cole looked miserable in every darned photo of the team the whole year long, right up to the end. I think that he talked himself into believing it could work, the virus hit, he went home–which was a long way away–knew that there would be no Camp Sanderson to give him a leg up, and said screw it. If he believes in himself and was effectively looking at playing third-string here next year then more power to him for thinking he could do better. Also, a year to bulk up could be a big boost to his career.
All highly speculative, of course. . .
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I don’t think Bajema transferring is any kind of surprise but why did he wait so long? Seems like the off season (Dejulius leaving and Christopher not committing) played in his favor and then when he didn’t leave right away so the timing just seemed odd. Maybe he was hoping for an off season to prove he was better than Nunez and when that off season was ruined he figured nows the time to leave? Just wondering if it’s been speculated why now rather than earlier?
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My hope is that the Why Now question is answered soon by a roster addition. Sorry to lose Bajema, but hopeful there is talent coming in. Still reason to believe the portal could deliver.
There’s been plenty of speculation lol. Ultimately it’s not something we are likely to ever get an answer for
Braylon Edwards. Caught 2 balls in 2001 when we badly needed a second receiver. Was a star the very next year. Must have had a crazy good offseason.
Also, Mitch McGary went from playing limited minutes in 2013 to a sudden superstar in the tourney.
Coaches make mistakes. Sometimes guys transfer and turn out to be better than the guys playing ahead of them - see Olivier St. Jean transferring when we recruited over him with Willie Mitchell and Jerod Ward.
I like Juwan, and I assume Bajema didn’t play more due to concerns about his defense. That’s entirely fair, I just think from a talent standpoint he showed a lot more promise than Nunez.
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I’m not sure it’s fair to say all the eggs were in the Christopher basket. We recruited all of Springer, Burnett and Moody at the two in the fall, we just didn’t get any of them. Juwan did the best he could, coming in at an odd time with no prior college coaching experience. JB recruited several solid 2G options in 2018 and 2019 but did not land any of them. Noah Locke would be a big help right about now.
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Well, Nunez also played mop up minutes and never looked good at all.
Cole was 10-13 from the floor and scored 28.2 points per 40 minutes. I would have at least liked to see what he could do against better competition. It’s hard to imagine him being worse than Nunez.
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Man, reading this thread it looks like backup QB syndrome CAN exist on basketball message boards - even for the 9th spot in an 8 man rotation.
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I feel like Zeb is just criminally underrated by our fans. I can’t imagine any other Big Ten schools having so many doubts about a top 75 kid. I looked at the rankings the other day and I think Aaron Henry was like in the 90s or 100s. I think Zeb has a lot of ability and will be pretty good from day one. What’s the knock on him, that he sat behind Cade Cunningham on a loaded Monteverde team? Big deal. If he had stayed in Toledo and dominated
lesser competition, he probably would have ended the year ranked in the 40s and people would be really high on him.
I remember when McGary went to prep school, struggled, and his ranking went from #2 to #28. That turned out OK.
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