The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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66 THE WOLVERINE ❱ JUNE/JULY 2023 J ohn Beilein came to Ann Ar- bor in 2007 with a vision for Michigan basketball and how he wanted to build his program. Like everyone, he wanted elite players, of course … as long as they were good fits as student- athletes. But lots of those guys were (and still are) unrecruitable for those not willing to cut corners, which meant there were times he had to find diamonds in the rough (like Stu Douglass, Zack Novak and Caris LeVert), get a head start by offering kids earlier who would blow up later (Glenn Robinson III) or grab kids who were vastly underrated (Trey Burke) and turn them into stars. His ultimate goal — to build vet- eran teams around them so, by their third or fourth years, they'd have a group that knew each oth- er's every move. Beilein proved to be such a great de- veloper of talent that his players got too good, too fast. Players like Burke and wing Nik Stauskas were gone after two years. Ignas Brazdeikis lasted just one, even though he was only a second-round NBA Draft pick. In 2019, Beilein decided he'd had enough. He left for a shot to coach in the NBA. Sixteen years later, U-M's fifth-year head coach Juwan Howard finds himself in a similar position, with one big excep- tion — he now has the transfer portal to deal with. Instead of having to sit out a year, players can now leave for another school without penalty, meaning it's a free-for-all on who might emerge and search for better financial (NIL) oppor- tunities, etc. Even those who seem most loyal and committed are fair game, as we saw when Hunter Dickinson left after his third year to go to Kansas. He claimed he made "less than six figures" in NIL money at Michigan last year, and his new suitors … well, they had deep pockets. Basketball used to be about relation- ships, associate head coach Phil Mar- telli lamented. If it still were, Dickinson would be finishing his fourth year with a chance to become a Michigan legend. The almighty dollar won out, and there was nothing Howard could do about it. "I would say this — in all my years as a head coach and being around college basketball, I have never seen a relation- ship like Juwan Howard and Hunter Dickinson. I've just never seen it," Mar- telli said. "To see the best player, the most ac- claimed player, the most flamboyant player to be as connected as he was, for Juwan to coach him on such a personal level, and for Hunter to allow himself to be coached .Sometimes it wasn't Hunter that was being corrected, it was the rest of the players. And if the main man takes coaching, then why wouldn't the next person or the next person? "That's where I would leave it. It's not personal. I rode the ups and downs with Hunter. … We had a lot of conversations. The basketball part, that was covered wire to wire with Juwan." So, they move on without their cen- terpiece, while Jett Howard and Kobe Bufkin — who, like Beilein's guys, developed quickly on How- ard's watch — are both off to the NBA, leaving the head coach and his staff to scramble to rebuild the roster. To its credit, Michigan has done well in the portal, securing three pledges and hosting several oth- ers. But the days of building a team of preps and watching them grow together appear to be long gone. On a positive note, you can still have success year to year if you do the portal right. Last year, for ex- ample, some NCAA Tournament teams — Kansas State, for one — made runs nobody saw coming. Penn State had one of its best years in memory by poaching some outstanding talents from smaller schools to lead them. For now, it appears that's how the Michigan coaches and their counter- parts at other schools are going to have to operate, at least until the NCAA comes around and decides to reinstate the rule forcing transfers to sit a year before be- coming eligible. Some might say that's unfair to the players, but given the money being thrown around now … forgive us if we don't feel too sorry for them if it hap- pens. But it probably won't, which is why you (sadly) shouldn't get too attached to your favorite players anymore. Before you know it, they'll be gone to the high- est bidder. Cynical? Maybe. Reality? Definitely. As they say, "don't hate the player, hate the game." We're getting there, but still hopeful that somehow the sport recor- rects, and we get college basketball as it used to — and was meant to — be. We won't hold our breath. ❏ Chris Balas has been with The Wolverine since 1997. Contact him at cbalas@ thewolverine.com and follow him on Twitter @Balas _ Wolverine. INSIDE MICHIGAN ❱ CHRIS BALAS Sign Of The Times Juwan Howard coached and developed Hunter Dickinson for three years at Michigan only to see his 7-foot-1 center transfer to Kansas for a better NIL package this offseason. PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN