The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1497536
MAY 2023 ❱ THE WOLVERINE 35 ❱ MICHIGAN BASKETBALL ranked No. 1 in the preseason AP poll but flopped with a 20-13 record, missing the NCAA Tournament and declining an NIT invite. Love is the No. 3-ranked player in On3's transfer portal rankings. He can be elite, which he showed two years ago in leading the Tar Heels to the NCAA championship game. However, he was an enigma this year with his shot selection heavily criticized. Despite having a lower field goal percentage, he attempted 28.4 percent of the Tar Heels' shots when he was on the floor. On average, he missed 9.5 field goal attempts per game. Love, though, was a standout during the 2022 NCAA Tournament. His hot shooting led the Tar Heels on a surprise run to a final berth before they lost to Kansas in a wild championship game. He scored 27 points in the second half of a Sweet 16 win over UCLA and hit the game-sealing three-pointer to bury Duke in the Final Four. He scored 28 points in the win over the Blue Devils. The newest Michigan guard averaged 15.9 points, 3.6 and 3.4 rebounds per game in 2021-22, shooting a much better clip from three-point range (36 percent). He has also proven to be a stellar free throw shooter during his career. He made 80.8 percent of his attempts as a freshman and upped that mark to 86.3 percent as a sophomore. Like some of his other statistics, his percentage dipped to 76.5 percent this past season. Love joins a Michigan backcourt with a returning starter in sophomore-to-be point guard Dug McDaniel and possi- bly graduate guard Jaelin Llewellyn, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in December. Llewellyn plans to be back and could be fully healthy by the time the season begins in early November. Freshman combo guard George Wash- ington III (6-2, No. 111 in the On3 Indus- try Ranking) out of out of Dayton (Ohio) Chaminade Julienne will also join the backcourt this summer. However, Washington's classmate, center Papa Kante, apparently will not be headed to Ann Arbor. Kante, the nation's No. 57 overall player according to On3, revealed on April 18 that he had asked to be released from his letter of intent. PORTAL WATCH CONTINUES Finally, two more names to watch closely in the transfer portal are Oliv- ier Nkamhoua, a 6-10 power forward from Tennessee, and 6-7 wing Matthew Cleveland from Florida State. There were rumblings Nkamhoua would be next to pledge, though he hadn't as of April 17. On3's No. 33 player in the portal (as of April 17) finished last season as Tennessee's second-leading scorer at 10.8 points per game and the team's lead- ing rebounder at 5.0 per contest. VolQuest.com reported Nkamhoua was "wildly inconsistent, but when he was 'on' he turned in several of the most explosive and efficient offensive perfor- mances of the season for Tennessee." He tied a program record for made field goals without a miss in January at South Carolina when he went 10-for- 10 from the floor with 23 points. On Jan. 28 against Texas, in one of the Vols' signature wins of the season, Nkamh- oua went off for 27 points on 12-of-15 shooting to help Tennessee dispatch the Longhorns 82-71. He also had one of the greatest offen- sive performances in program history when he helped knock Duke out of the NCAA Tournament with 27 points in a 65-52 win. Cleveland, On3's 22nd-best transfer portal prospect, started all 30 games for Florida State this season. He averaged 13.8 points, 7.4 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game, and shot 44.5 percent from the floor and 35 percent from three- point range on the season (21-of-60). The former No. 25 overall recruit in the 2021 class would have two years of eligi- bility remaining at his next step. Florida State, Kansas, Michigan, NC State and Stanford were Cleveland's final five schools coming out of high school, so there is an existing relation- ship with the Wolverines staff. Dozens of schools are on him now, however, so Michigan will have work to do. As of April 17, Michigan ranked No. 13 nationally in On3's transfer portal index, which measures a team's produc- tion during the transfer process relative to its roster. This proprietary algorithm determines if a school has improved its overall team talent, stayed the same, or declined during the transfer window. ❏ 2023-24 U-M SCHOLARSHIP ROSTER (as of April 18) Returning Players Pos. Player Elig. Ht. Wt. G Dug McDaniel So. 5-11 160 G Jaelin Llewellyn Gr. 6-2 190 F Terrance Williams II Sr. 6-7 230 F Gregg Glenn III So. 6-7 230 F Youssef Khayat So. 6-9 195 F Jace Howard Sr. 6-7 225 C/F Tarris Reed Jr. So. 6-10 260 F Will Tschetter R-So. 6-8 240 Signees* G George Washington III Fr. 6-2 165 Incoming Transfers G Nimari Burnett Jr. 6-4 190 F Tray Jackson Sr. 6-10 210 G Caleb Love Sr. 6-4 200 * Center Papa Kante has sought a release from his NLI Former Alabama guard Nimari Burnett and Seton Hall forward Tray Jackson also are headed to Michigan via the transfer portal. PHOTOS COURTESY ALABAMA ATHLETICS (LEFT) AND SETON HALL ATHLETICS (RIGHT)