As the Portal Turns

 On and on it goes....

Portal updates.

First, for MBB, Anthony McComb III has entered the portal.  A big scorer in HS and prep ball, he played in 33 games and made 2 starts for BG, logging a total of 250 minutes and scoring 1.9 PPG.

That's five Falcons in the portal--Hill, Agee, Edwards, Greer and McComb, plus Jason Spurgin, who possibly could return home to play pro.  And Phillip was out of eligibility.

So far only two in...

For football, the post-Spring practice portal is humming, too. 

DL Bam Booker.  A highly decorated HS player in Ohio, he went to Maryland then came to BG.  He appeared in 11 games for BG last year, but made only 3 tackles.

LB Marquette Harris ...a JUCO transfer played only 3 games for BG.

DB Justin Lynch....JUCO transfer, made only 2 appearances for the Falcons.

WR Tae’Shaun Johnson..highly recruited player out of Toledo Central Catholic.  He was the #66 player in Ohio.  Has not played for BG in 2 years. Missed 2022 with injury. 

Defensive back/Linebacker Canaan Williams, who did not appear for BG in two years.

And Diego Neri, who entered the portal before Spring practice.

Best of luck to all of these young men.  BG brought some guys in during this window last year, so we will keep our eyes open.

MBB Roster Update

work starts now #FlyAroundandFindOut x #AyZiggy pic.twitter.com/BGEDy7v2zm

— BGSU Men's Basketball (@BGSUMBB) April 10, 2024

Forensics from photos on Twitter...they are having some workouts and Sam Towns, Trey Thomas and Jamai Felt are shown.  Also, I understand that DJ Smith is back and practicing.  

As we know, Edwards, Greer, Agee and Hill are in the portal, and Phillip was out of eligibility.

And four players coming in....so far.  BG continues to work the recruiting wires.

New Falcon MBB Verbal

So, BG has a new verbal for MBB, this young man is a transfer from UM.  He's 6'9" and originally from Lebanon.  His name is Youssef Khayat, although his bio at Michigan says he prefers "Yo-Yo" on first reference.  (More here from Michigan Daily on the origin of Yo-Yo, etc).

He's not the normal background.  He lived in Lebanon and then they moved to France so he could play ball.  His HS years were spent playing on a U21 Club affiliated with Limoges, which is a pro team at the top level.  He had some success there his last year, playing in 32 games and averaging 16.8 points, 7.7 rebounds, 1.8 assists in 28.2 minutes

He has played internationally for Lebanon at the youth and senior level.

He went to UM where he played two years.  He signed late and kind of got a slow start his FR year. He played 26 games in two injury-plagued years, ending up 154 minutes played.  He did not generate a lot of numbers.  Even so, this article indicates he was making progress behind the scenes.

He has two years left.  I think our coaches have shown (in only one year, true) to be good talent evaluators, so I look forward to seeing Yo-Yo in action.

Welcome to the Falcons, Yo-Yo.

Enjoy the day everyone!!

 

Terrible News from Football

Oof.  Terrible news from Spring Practice.  PaSean Wimberly said he was injured and will miss the season as a result of a "tragic accident" in practice.

It's heartbreaking.  PaSean is one of the best liked players we have had for years.  He is from Whitmer, and is a grad student in Architecture with a high GPA.  He excelled on special teams and, from what I hear, was making a strong case to be Taron Keith in this year's offense.  He is three-time Academic All-MAC and National Special Teams Player of the Year. 

Best of luck for a return to health for PaSean.

BG MBB Transfer IN

So, BG has their first player out of the portal for MBB.  His name is Braelon Green.  He visited UT and BG over the weekend, and chose BG over UT to play for at least the next year.  He has the potential to be a really good player in the MAC.

He's from Southfield, MI, the home of Juice Turner and Da'Jion Humphrey.  He played a prep year at Southern California Academy.   He had a large number of power conference offers.

Out of HS, he would have been among the highest-rated players we ever landed. 

One of two Top-100 rated prospects by Rivals, as they tabbed him as the No. 65 overall prospect and the No. 21 shooting guard in the nation...ESPN rated him as a four-star prospect and the No. 2 overall player in the state of Michigan...Four-star prospect according to 247 Sports consensus rankings, which rates him as the No. 127 overall prospect and No. 22 shooting guard in the nation...No. 114 overall prospect and No. 25 shooting guard prospect in the country according to On3.

He went to Arizona State, where he played 122 minutes in his first season.  And into the portal he went.

Of special note is that he is normally mentioned as a combo guard.  Not much is available from HS and there isn't a big enough sample to tell much from ASU.

We are thrilled to have him.  He has the potential to be a top MAC player.

In other news, JZ Zaher announced he would be entering the NBA draft.  His Uncle does own an NBA team...

MAC Portal Review

 The Portal is cutting a swath through the MAC.  The game has truly changed for us.

Akron:

No players in portal...had an old team

Ball State:

Quincy Adams (transferred to DII)

Jalin Anderson---15.8 PPG

Micah Bell--Averaged 6 minutes

Joey Brown--Averaged 9 minutes

Trent Middleton, JR--6.2 PPG

    Preston Sparks returning from Indiana

Buffalo:

Isaiah Adams--12.8 PPG

James Graham--Played 11 games

Kanye Jones--played 9 games, 8 PPG

Jonnivius Smith--8 PPG

    Noah Batchelor in from Maryland--highly recruited, averaged 7 minutes in two years

Central Michigan:

Noah Adamczyk--DNP

Derrick Butler--10.7 PPG

Jemal Davis--5.5 PPG

Markus Harding--10.2 PPG, 5.2 RPG

Max Majerle--4 PPG

Paul McMillan IV--8.3 PPG

Anthony Pritchard--MAC Co-defensive player of year, 1st team All-MAC

Aidan Rubio--40% 3FG shooter.

Eastern Michigan:

Tyson Acuff--MAC leading scorer, 3rd team All-MAC

Julius Ellerbe--2.5 PPG

Cyril Martynov--7-footer, played 12 minutes a game

John McGriff--15 minutes a game

Derik Pranger--9 GP

Javante Randle--6 minutes a game

Connor Serven--18 minutes a game

Andrew Wells--5 GP

Kent State:

Reggie Bass--former MAC FR of Yr at CMU

VonCameron Davis--13.8 PPG, MAC HM

LA Hayes--14 GP

Jalen Sullinger--Third team All-MAC

Miami:

Ryan Mabrey: 6.8 PPG

Jacquel Morris--13 starts

    Kam Craft, Xavier coming in. DNP this year.

Northern Illinois

Xavier Amos--14 PPG

Will Loving-Watts--MAC All FR, 7 PPG

Yanic Konan Niederhauser--7.3 PPG

Zarique Nutter--15.4 PPG

Zion Russell--4 PPG

Ohio

Quinn Corna--7 GP

Toledo

Tyler Cochran--2nd team All-MAC

Dante Maddox--2nd team All-MAC

Re'Heim Moss--2nd team All-MAC

Ben Wight--9 MPG

Western Michigan

B. Artis-White--All-MAC HM, 10.4 PPG

Jefferson De La Cruz Monegro, 9 PPG

Seth Hubbard--14.1 PPG, leading scorer

Hill in Portal, Simon Staying

In this week's edition of As the Hoop Turns, there are two significant updates.

The first one, chronologically, was that Marcus Hill entered the portal.  He said that he was open to returning.  Online reports show that he has received a large number of offers from high-major schools.  As I noted on twitter, the Detroit News is reporting that Tyson Acuff, the MAC's leading scorer from EMU, is getting $200,000 NIL offers. If Hill is in that range, you cannot blame him for taking a look.  Love to have him back.   Wish him the best no matter what.

Speaking of taking a look, we went through a few days where it looked like Tod Kowalczyk and Todd Simon were dueling for the Utah State job.  It would be a big raise and in a six-bid conference.  Last night, they both "withdrew" a few hours before Utah State named Jerrod Calhoun of Youngstown State.

Anyway, that bullet was dodged.  BG has had two prominent one-and-dones in the modern era--Bill Fitch and Chris Jans--and each led to the wilderness.  It will be interesting to see if that impacts recruiting--it seems like less, since the players aren't looking at a four year commitment anymore.

That puts Agee, Hill, Edwards and Greer in the portal, with Pardon and JUCO Preston Squire known to be incoming.  We don't know about the other players, but anyone can, assuming the Senior Night guys.  One commented has said that Jason Spurgin is considering playing at BG or as a pro, presumable in the NBL in Australia.

More on the portal later.....

MBB Portal Update

Latest portal update for Men's Basketball....PJ Edwards has entered.

PJ was a 3-star recruit when he went to UCF.  He was there for one year and came to BG.  He made 5 starts early and consistently got minutes in the upper teens until the Louisiana game.  No idea if he was battling an injury, but in BG's last 10 games he played only 4 times for a total of 24 minutes.

Wish him the best as he moves along.

I saw one post on X that I thought was revealing.  It was from a Detroit News reporter who said that Tyson Acuff, the MAC's leading scorer who is leaving EMU, was expecting to make $200,000 next year.  Trey Townsend from Oakland is at $500,000.

Anyway, BG has only lost 3 guys and one major contributor.  (As of 11:10 on Wednesday). UT's top 3 scorers are now in the portal.

It's a new world.