Michigan Basketball: 3 Thoughts on Cole Bajema entering transfer portal

Curious timing

One of the things that is most surprising about this move by Bajema is just the timing of it. Most players, if they decided they are going to transfer do it earlier, although things have been different no doubt this offseason.

And because Bajema has to sit out a year, it’s not going to matter for him as much. He won’t be playing next season either way.

It’s entirely possible that Bajema wants to go somewhere he can be a starter and that’s legitimate, although you could make the case he could have earned that shot at Michigan too.

This season, he wasn’t going to start, unless he improved tremendously from a year ago, which would have been difficult without much of an offseason. At the very least, he was fourth or fifth in the pecking order at guard. The thing is, he can shoot and that can always change up the depth chart.

Bajema was a candidate to maybe see some time at the two or the three and with all the scholarships opening up after the 2020-21 season, he could have been one of 5-6 core guys returning.

But it’s possible he saw Juwan Howard recruiting a number of near five-star combo guards and point guards and figured he might end up as nothing more than a rotation guy at U-M either way.