I guess he just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to play with Ivan Rabb for one year
Now what looks like the likely option with the open spot.
It’s a bummer. I definitely can’t fault someone for choosing Cal, though, especially when free grad school is involved.
Ugghhh. Another open scholarship and missed opportunity to improve the team.
Pretty bummed about this one. Really feel he was a great fit for the team. Hope they can find another grad transfer that can help for a year as it is late in the game to find a worthwhile 2016 kid. Don’t want to waste the scholarship but would like to fill the open spot with someone who can help next year
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kostas or grad transfer. only losing strategy is leaving it empty. anyone who can play mins at the 2 or 4 has value if only to rest others
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Have we been mentioned with any other grad transfers? I don’t recall any
I wonder if positions will change up a bit. If Walton, Xavier, and MAAR are our only backcourt options, we’re kind of thin there. But if Xavier can play, Walton could play the 2 and give X more minutes with a 3 man rotation in the backcourt. Or you could pinch Duncan or Chatman at the 2 for a few minutes?
I assume we’ll keep a tighter 8 man rotation that looks like this:
Walton - MAAR - Robinson - Irvin - Donnal
Xavier - Chatman - Wagner
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Thin on the wings too. Kam really needs to make a jump to be able to take 5-10 minutes from both Duncan and Irvin. I think it very well may happen, but it’s a lot to ask from a guy who had multiple DNP-Coach’s decision’s last season. I really hope we don’t find ourselves missing Aubrey off the bench too much next year
We’ll need a 3rd big man, 3rd wing, and 4th guard to be able to play spot minutes…have to assume this is where Ibi and either DJ or one of the Freshmen bigs will have to play above their perceived capabilities. In no way am I advocating they get significant run…but they all need to be ready to step in and not completely alter the game in a negative direction. If they can’t fill that scholly, I don’t think there’s any way Teske or Davis redshirt.
Wagner needs to start.
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I think it’s more likely you see Zak at the 2 than Kam or Duncan, with Chatman at the 4. They’ve played Zak at the 2 before. I wouldn’t be surprised to see that lineup.
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Zak at the 2? He would be torched on defense, Zak can’t move very well laterally.
When you are coach you can decide not to play Zak at the 2. Beilein disagrees, as Zak has indeed played the 2 at times.
We would have to look at his defensive numbers at the 2 but judging by the D the past few seasons any prior ideas should be pretty much scrapped and start from scratch.
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Yes tough guy, we know that when you are AD you will fire JB and hire Buzz Williams and all will be bright and we will only have players with exceptional lateral agility.
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Outside of the players who are obviously going to spend time guarding the opponents’ 2 (Walton, MAAR, X), who would be better suited than Zak? Definitely not Kam or Duncan. I like JBlair52’s idea of the 3 guard lineup, but Walton and MAAR’s minutes will get too high if we do that too often. I’m not saying Zak would be a plus defender vs the 2, but I still think it’s the best option aside from small ball with Walton, MAAR, and X. (side note: that small ball lineup leaves us vulnerable to MAAR getting out muscled at the 3, similar to Zak guarding the 2 leaves us vulnerable to Zak getting run passed)
Tough guy? You may want to sit these discussions out in the future. Have you watched Irvin the past 3 years? He’s not very quick at all and this isn’t about having exceptional lateral agility this is about Zak Irvin being 10th in drating ahead of only Duncan, MAAR and Ricky. If you don’t have good perimeter defenders and makes it easier for teams to break you down.
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Where are these dratings from? Not that I don’t believe that somebody has compiled ratings in this fashion, and often, statistics trump what you think you see, but if Aubrey Dawkins wasn’t in the bottom 4 defensively on Michigan last year–hell, if he wasn’t at the very bottom–then I’m really suspicious that this is garbage in garbage out. There is no way in the world that anyone could reasonably believe that both MAAR and Irvin, or either of them for that matter, were worse defenders than Dawkins.
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And he’s been a screen door. What point are you trying to make?
Zak at the 2 is worst case scenario. I imagine JB knows this.
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