The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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JUNE/JULY 2024 ❱ THE WOLVERINE 65 M ichigan men's basketball was not supposed to be projected to contend for a spot in the NCAA Tournament next season. The Wolverines reset with the hiring of Florida Atlantic head coach Dusty May after terminating Juwan Howard due to a tumultuous 8-24 campaign and three-year downtrend. With the departures of four of the five contributors that played at least half of the team's available minutes last year (Dug McDaniel, Olivier Nkamhoua, Tarris Reed Jr. and Terrance Williams II) and four reserves (Tray Jackson, Jaelin Llewellyn, George Washington III and Youssef Khayat), May needed to reset nearly the entire roster for U-M this offseason. Given Michigan's previous hiccups in the transfer portal, it seemed most likely that May would need at least a couple years to assemble a quality squad to stop U-M's NCAA Tournament drought. However, May has performed a magical makeover to put Michigan in that position immediately. In the span of about two weeks in April, May has secured six exciting incoming transfers and a pair of prep commitments to give Michigan hope for next year. All six incoming transfers are ranked in the top 250 of On3's transfer portal rankings for 2024, and as a result, On3 has designated the Wolverines as No. 6 in its Team Trans- fer Portal Index, which measures a team's production during the transfer process to determine if a school has improved its talent via the portal. Michigan's transfer class is headlined by 7-foot-1 center Vladislav Goldin, who followed May from Boca Raton to Ann Arbor. Goldin averaged 15.7 points, 6.9 boards and 1.6 blocks per game, and was an offensive efficiency machine in 2023- 24. He posted a 67.3 effective field-goal percentage, which was 12th nationally Two hundred of his 303 field-goal tries came at the rim, and he made an absurd 72 percent of them. This resulted in Goldin having a 125.5 offensive rating (ORtg) — over 120 is considered a high offensive efficiency rating — on a high amount of usage at 25.9 USG percentage, a measure of a player's field goal and free throw at- tempts and turnovers compared to the team's totals in those metrics. What is most encouraging is that Gold- in's offense translated well when playing against quality competition (128.2 ORtg vs. Top 100 opponents). In light of this, On3 rated Goldin as the 15th-best pros- pect in the transfer portal this offseason. The rest of Michigan's incoming trans- fer portal class fills out the roster well with a touch of roster construction that Howard missed. At point guard to replace McDaniel, May added Auburn transfer Tre Donald- son (No. 167 in On3's transfer rankings), who split time at the spot for the fourth- best team in the country according to KenPom, notwithstanding the Tigers' first-round NCAA Tournament exit. Ohio State transfer Roddy Gayle Jr. (No. 75) and North Texas transfer Rubin Jones (No. 242) will bring different types of skill sets to the wing. Gayle is a high-volume combo guard who can score from all spots on the floor (13.4 points per game in 2023- 24) and can see his efficiency improve if he rediscovers his three-point jumper (28.4 percent three-point accuracy in 2023- 24), while Jones is a lockdown defender who can snipe from behind the arc (41.6 three-point percentage) but struggles from the midrange (23.2 percent). May then brought in additional size to team up with Goldin and holdover Will Tschetter. The combination of Tschetter and Alabama transfer Sam Walters (No. 144) will ensure that Michigan always has a stretch four on the floor who can dam- age defenses from deep (Walters posted a 39.4 three-point percentage in 2023-24), and 7-foot center Danny Wolf (No. 77) from Yale (14.1 points and 9.7 rebounds per game in 2023-24) will provide the Wolverines legitimate depth at center. Altogether, the Wolverines' incoming transfers should bring experience and maturity from schools that had quality teams when they played. Florida Atlantic, Auburn, Ohio State, North Texas and Ala- bama all have been ranked in the top 50 of KenPom in the past two seasons. And Yale knocked off Auburn in the NCAA Tour- nament. Plus, and most importantly, their talent should complement each other well at each of the five spots. The numbers agree. With these new Wolverines on board, T-Rank currently projects Michigan to be the 26th-best team in all of college basketball and sixth in the expanded Big Ten next season. That would launch U-M from last by a mile in the conference to an NCAA Tournament team. As a reminder, the Maize and Blue finished 118th in T-Rank to close a miser- able 2023-24 season. There are still questions about the next edition of Michigan men's hoops, from how well these players will mesh and build team chemistry on and off the court in a short period of time to whether U-M has a distributor that can keep turnovers to a minimum. However, there is no ques- tion that May has had resounding success in the transfer portal to start his Michigan tenure. As a result, May very well could have the Wolverines dancing in March in Year 1 — when it looked like U-M might miss the NCAA Tournament for three, four or five straight years and well beyond. ❑ INSIDE THE NUMBERS ❱ DREW HALLETT U-M's Transfer Portal Makeover On3 rated Vlad Goldin, a 7-foot-1 center from Florida Atlantic who averaged 15.7 points, 6.9 boards and 1.6 blocks per game last season, as the No. 15 player in the transfer portal. PHOTO COURTESY FAU ATHLETICS Staff writer Drew Hallett has covered Michigan athletics since 2013. Contact him at drew.c.hallett@gmail.com and follow him on X (Twitter) @DrewCHallett.