As the Portal Turns: Incoming!!

MBB has its 3rd player--technically,  JUCO player, so not technically from the portal, but he's a new player.

His name is Javontae Campbell.  Nickname is "Soup."  As I have said before, if your last name is Campbell, your nickname will be "Soup."  Ask Erik Campbell on the football staff.  "Soup."

Javontae is currently attending Northern Oklahoma Community College-Tonkawa.  It's between Oklahoma City and Wichita.  He's from Muskogee, as is Carrie Underwood.

He had a productive career in JUCO.  He scored 26.5 PPG last year and was efficient. (He was 2nd in JUCO ball for points per game.) He shot mostly 2FGs and made 56%.  He made 31% from 3FG and 77% from the line.  Also, 5.5 RPG and 2.6 APG. 

He was the #67 JUCO recruit, according to JUCOrecruiting.com.

He's 6'2".

I think it would appear he is going to fill the Marcus Hill role.

Welcome to the Falcons, Javonate.

As the portal turns, non-portal edition

Jason Spurgin has signed a 3-year deal to play pro ball in Australia.  The first year will be a developmental year and then he will play two years on the full roster.   He is the 8th player who will not be returning from last year, seven of them who had eligibility remaining.

We will miss his infectious enthusiasm.  He is the program's career leader in fist bumps.  Best of luck to him.

His brother has been practicing with the team.

As the portal turns, April 26

Agee is at USC.  Hill is at NC State.  We'll see how much they play, but I believe they are both getting paid.  Nothing but the best to them.

DJ Smith has entered the portal.  He played only a few games before getting injured and missing the remainder of the season.

That gives BG six players into the portal and then two who have come in via the portal, one via JUCO and one via HS.

Based on reports on Twitter, we are actively looking to build a team for next year.

This is like pro sports with no long-term contracts.

As the Portal Turns, April 20

 Armon Bethea and Davian Mayo are in the portal.  Both were transfers who played one year at BG.

Bethea is an o-lineman from Arizona.  He played 41 snaps, mostly against Michigan and Akron.

Mayo is a LB who transferred from Memphis. He had 14 tackles in 12 games....played 114 snaps in total.

Best of luck to them both.  I'm guessing that they didn't like where they finished the spring on the depth chart and they want to go somewhere where they can play.  Bethea has already been offered by Austin Peay. 

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...