akeem miskdeen

The ball! Also, the wait. 247's Travis Branham has lodged a crystal ball for Vlad Goldin to Michigan. Meanwhile the final FAU piece dropped, as Alijah Martin entered the portal with a no-contact tag. No balls for him or Johnell Davis yet.

What's the holdup on the other two guys? Well, On3 reports that Davis "plans to go all in with his preparation for the NBA Draft with the majority of his focus, at this point, on that process." If he's able to catch the eyes of NBA guys this time around he might not return to college. Expect an Olivier Nkamhoua timeline here, with a bunch of will-he-or-won't-he. Given the fact that Davis went through the draft process a year ago it seems likely that he's going to hear the same things that led him back to college last year, because he'll make more money in college than the G-League. (RIGHT, EXTREMELY RICH BASKETBALL DONORS?)

Goldin's timeline may be accelerated relative to his teammates because he's a drop-coverage-only center and the NBA generally doesn't like those anymore.

The final pieces, coaching edition. First: the NCAA loosened its rules a couple years back in re: coaches. Now you can have five assistants that coach the team; only three are allowed to recruit off-campus. Generally the #4 and #5 spots have been grad assistant types.

This item may explain some conflicting reports about who May's third assistant is going to be. (Mike Boynton and Akeem Miskdeen are 1 and 2.) Folks started dropping Tennessee assistant Rod Clark's name yesterday, to the point where even the Tennessee side of things was saying there was a lot of buzz. Clark is another guy with a sterling reputation as a recruiter. He's the guy credited with bringing SEC player of the year Dalton Knecht over from Northern Colorado:

“It started with (Rod Clark). He was the first one to hit me up out of the portal. Me and Rod, he knew my JUCO. He had family members and friends that played there so he knew quite a bit about Northeastern, so it was kind of that and just creating a bond right away."

He did cop a two-game suspension for an unknown "compliance issue," but the last guy who did that at Michigan won a national title shortly afterwards sooooooooo…

[After THE JUMP: percentages updated]

The Howard Interview. Juwan Howard sat down with Brendan Quinn for what Quinn says is his first one on one interview in two years. That, in and of itself, is part of the issue. This section is kind of like… well… I mean…?

In the end, Howard says he wishes he’d opened up more. He wishes people knew junior forward Will Tschetter keeps a garden in his backyard, where he and Jenine grow jalapeño, kale, bell peppers, lettuce. He wishes he’d been more open about his feelings on going from one-game shy of the Elite Eight in March 2021 to outcast in March 2022. He wishes he hadn’t been so reticent about his heart surgery. He wishes people knew that, during the interview, former captain Eli Brooks called to check in on him.

He says he wishes he let people get to know him.

One of the issues with hiring a first-time head coach is that sometimes they don't know the shape of the job. They've seen it, they've been around it, but being it for the first time is something different. Especially when you come from a Miami Heat organization where all that stuff is minimized because you have a long-term, secure coach in a well-run organization. Beating the bushes is not a thing that Howard ever had to do.

The other main takeaway from the interview is that Howard should not have coached this year:

Doctors set his recovery time at 6-12 weeks. He spent 15 days in the hospital post-op.

Howard told assistant coach Howard Eisley, a lifelong friend, that he would return in two weeks. He saw doctors’ recommendations as races to win, not timelines to live by. And he suffered for it.

“I thought I was a Marvel hero, but this was real life stuff I was dealing with, and I was extremely naive,” he says. “I was impatient with the process.”

Howard wasn’t fully recovered when he returned to the Michigan bench for a November trip to the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas, he says. Multiple complications emerged throughout the season. He rarely slept through the night. Doctors advised him to step away and undergo another surgery to address an atrial flutter that sapped his energy and caused severe discomfort. He was scheduled to undergo a 7 a.m. procedure following a Jan. 23 road game at Purdue, but heavy snow grounded Michigan’s return flight. Howard’s surgery was canceled and he declined to reschedule it in-season, against doctors’ recommendations and to Jenine’s displeasure.

The surgery is scheduled for April 19.

There is a timeline where Howard does not get Terrence Shannon and Caleb Love spiked into the earth by admissions (and Shannon, uh, settles down with a nice poli sci major in Ann Arbor); a timeline where he does not have health issues. He likely still has his job, and Michigan might have been really good through year five. That is not this timeline, but it is so close that it hurts. Howard's issues were only half of his own making.

[After THE JUMP: basketball roster stuff, hockey items]

This is what happens when a couple of UV bullets turn into their own post, Larry.

One assistant secured. Matt Norlander:

Coaching scuttle: Former Oklahoma State coach Mike Boynton Jr. is soon expected to join Dusty May's staff at Michigan as an assistant, sources tell @CBSSports. Boynton has other options at the high-major level, but May has put a high priority on Boynton in Year 1 in Ann Arbor.

— Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) April 3, 2024

Boynton was as South Carolina with Brad Underwood when Underwood was named the head coach at Stephen F Austin, spent four years there, followed Underwood to Oklahoma State, and then got the head job when Underwood bounced after one year.

His tenure at Oklahoma State was meh on the surface, with one bid in seven years and two other NIT appearances. Glancing at analytics is more encouraging since Boynton largely fielded solid teams in an increasingly brutal Big 12. His teams went #59, 83, 53, 33, 34, and 46 in Kenpom before bottoming out this year. He did plant a Kenpom flag: after Underwood's single year at OSU saw the Pokes finish 155th in defensive efficiency, Boynton had a two-year build, then a four-year run of top-50 defenses, the latter three all top 20. He could be this staff's Yaklich.

[After THE JUMP: Cade Cunnningham mentioned, portal update]