Michigan basketball: Venting frustrations after Caleb Love’s decommitment

Michigan men’s basketball felt like it had landed one of the biggest coups of the offseason through the transfer portal. Then, an academic situation arose and derailed it.

Stop me if you’ve heard this story before.

Prized recruit Caleb Love is no longer joining the Wolverines, re-entering the transfer portal on Wednesday after a month-plus commitment to Michigan. His addition was never official, and he never signed with the program, but it stings nonetheless.

This can’t keep happening. Not with the Wolverines facing the climb they do to get back into contention under head coach Juwan Howard.

Whether Love did not have the requisite academic standing to get into Michigan or the famed admissions department would not budge on its standards, he’s not coming. And that his courtship and commitment in April came together so quickly suggests it was a brisk process without a ton of vetting. Still, almost a month and a half went by without any updates other than Love responding to a social media rumor saying he would still be playing for U-M.

Knowing that Michigan has been bitting by academic hurdles before – talking to you, Terrance Shannon – the thought of losing another guy that could plug right into your starting lineup is so frustrating. Love’s addition would not have saved Michigan on his own, but it would have given them a proven star that wants the ball in crunch time. This roster sorely lacks that.

Admitting anyone other than freshmen and grad students is going to keep being difficult at Michigan and leadership there has shown no signs of budging on that issue, even with new leadership. That and a lack of NIL support for basketball is going to be an issue for the Wolverines if they wish to be competitive in this new era of college sports.

Football has done a good job of adjusting to what it can feasibly bring in by adding players coming off freshmen seasons and grad transfers. It can do this because it has an already strong infrastructure of recruited talent and an organized system in place to properly scout and vet potential fits for the roster.

Michigan needed a star because it lost a star in Hunter Dickinson to the transfer portal. Dickinson left for his reasons, mostly due to a lack of an adequate NIL package and Michigan’s perceived inability a field a roster that could compete for a national title. He gets both of those opportunities at Kansas.

This past year’s team will go down as one that missed the NCAA Tournament with a pair of future first-round picks in Jett Howard and Kobe Bufkin and a former All-American center. Next year’s roster is now set to have far less talent and far bigger question marks.

This is not what anyone envisioned after a hot start to the Howard era in the first two years with him on the bench. Late-game situations have been haphazard. The team’s mentality and identity are all over the place. Recruiting has taken a tumble in 2023 and is well on its way to that in 2024. It can’t retain the top players it has and can’t bring in its top targets from the transfer portal.

There’s no way to analyze other than to just share visceral frustration. Michigan has not made things easy on itself, but it can’t catch a break either. Howard and the pieces left behind are going to have to find a way to compete because nobody is going to expect them to make a ton of noise. That would have probably been the case with Love, but at least we know it would have been more entertaining.

Michigan still has a pair of transfers in Nimari Burnett and Tray Jackson set to come in and compete for starting roles and still has room to add via the portal. Tennessee forward Olivier Nkamhoua is out there to be had if he decides to not go pro, and the pursuit of Toledo guard RayJ Dennis has picked up over the last week or so. It makes sense why given the Love news that was on the way.

Right now, Michigan basketball is Homer Simpson’s barbecue pit. The product is just not matching up with the vision right now. That is a major concern heading into a critical year for the Howard era.

And the way out of it is going to have to come from within the walls of Crisler Center, not outside of it.

It is May 17, and it still feels like we do not have a shred of a clue who will be on this roster next year. Fans that want to scream into a pillow have every right to. Hopefully, clarity comes soon.

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