I agree. I wasn’t talking about him in pick and rolls… But I agree with you about Nunez. I just have faith that he can be improved. I think that he would be a older sophomore because of the one year in prep school. As far as bajema he excels in pick and roll. I saw a couple of his games when I visited the Seattle area -The kid can really ball. He reminds me of caris a d the one kid from Maryland that plays for alanta Hawks… His name slips me right now. I’m confident in what we have coming back. I think Jalen Wilson will be a beast. If we can get Justin peirce and one of Wagner and Lester c… We should be fine. I am disappointed in Poole. I though that he would come back for another year. I’m really going to miss Iggy the most. I just have faith that we will bounce back from the attrition. I’m interested in how this roster shape up. Hopefully Iggy come back and be the leader on this team ( I’m talking scoring and rebounding).
I thought it came out that Battle only committed in case he wanted to go to Michigan so that the spot wouldn’t get taken.
I don’t think it was a sudden, money-induced change of mind.
If anyone is curious what the Undergraduate Advisory letters that players receive look like:
I wonder if I can pay Jordan Poole $20 to record a Cameo where he reads off his evaluation letter word for word
Cameo rate is up to $75 for JP.
The letter does illustrate how it is easy to say “some teams think player X is a first round pick”… All that means is a couple of teams checked that box. Who is to say if they even have a first round pick or where they are drafting? 
This, x 1000.
“The high stakes pressure of professional opportunity is a destructive force that looms over modern college basketball. The intersection of players, family, agents, coaches, trainers and social media is never more than an arm’s length away from even the best teams and programs. Every year, there is a graveyard of teams that felt talented enough to win the whole thing but never quite got there.”
If as fan you couldn’t see that Poole was done with college basketball the last half of this year …?
I’m assuming there’s no visibility into what specific teams chose? If so, what incentive is there for teams to provide honest feedback?
If I’m a scout for a team that only possesses a 2nd round pick, and there’s a player I really want to draft that is considering returning to school, wouldn’t I automatically give him as high of a grade as possible so that he feels more confident in his decision to go pro?
If I’m hoping a player with a first round grade might fall to the 2nd round, could I just give a bunch of fringe prospects 1st round grades in the hopes that more players remain in the draft so there’s more options for teams ahead of me?
I honestly can’t think of any reason a scout would give a player an “undraftable” grade other than just to be honest
There’s no visibility on the form. It’s not anonymous to the NBA office however and the whole point of the process is to provide honest feedback to the players.
Kevin Huerter
Not sure what you’re implying, Chezaroo. I think he was pressing, not tanking or being lazy. Didn’t he want to impress the NBA scouts? What am I missing?
I think there’s lot of unfounded speculation here. I don’t think that JP or his father were negative in their comments, just explaining some of their thinking in regards to staying at Michigan for another year versus going pro. JP was extremely positive and classy in his goodbye comments. I see a kid who worked hard while here, making progress in some areas but with still some work to do. He had infectious enthusiasm and was a great team player, always rooting/cheering from the bench. There were some natural limitations based on the personnel and the college game which might have hampered his production and progress. He had a great career here and was probably the major reason Michigan made it to the Sweet Sixteen both years. Sure it could have gone even better but that’s usually the way it is. It’s a small sample size - he was only 5 or 6 threes from being a 40% 3 point shooter this year. It sounds like JP had a lot of feedback which impacted his decision and it’s presumptuous to second guess him. As he showed many times when taking over games, he clearly has NBA level talent although it needs refinement and consistency. I greatly enjoyed watching him at Michigan and look forward to rooting for him in the future. I, for one, think he will prove many of the doubters wrong.
So if he had made 100% of six of the three-point shots on which he shot 0%, he would have made 40% of the 203 triples he took this season.
Or perhaps I misread your comment through my half-empty glass.
Thank you sir… Had a brain fart there.
Thank you sir. Had a brain fart there.
Haha, I guess you are correct. My point is that many make grand pronouncements about whether somebody is a “great” 3 point shooter or a “so-so” 3 point shooter when the difference is just a few shots in a college season, statistically somewhat random. Anybody who has watched JP throughout his high school and college career would not conclude that he is a “so-so” 3 point shooter based on a handful of misses. But many have made this statement. He is an elite shooter with unusual range.
Appreciate this.
I wonder what Pooles 3 pt shooting average would have been if we take away the end of half prayers and those times he gets kicked the ball with fewer than 5 seconds on the shot clock.
Maybe its because I am a Poole fan but I seem to remember him taking a fair amount of half court shots at the buzzer and being the last resort very late in the shot clock.
Those halftime prayer shots are rarely if ever counted in the box score fwiw.
In today’s piece about Poole in the Free Press, Orion Sang–guy who we know and love from umhoops–notes that Poole did “take a number of difficult shots.” Some of those were chuckers and poor choices; sometimes he had the ball late in the game clock and needed to make something happen.
The Sang piece, with Dylan’s, is a reminder to me that Poole remains a pretty darned promising player, and that–it’s true–a small pile more threes would have us seeing his season differently. Don’t think anyone has linked it yet: