It has always been weird to me that college sports have transfer portal windows during the season and Michigan basketball is one of the teams that'll have to deal with that now.
The Wolverines are one of 16 teams still playing in the NCAA tournament. That's a blessing and not a curse but it does cause some challenges for next season in terms of building the roster.
The biggest challenge for Michigan will be replacing Vlad Goldin and presumably Danny Wolf. The Yale transfer has more eligibility but he seems like a sure-fire draft pick, even if he fell to the second round. Maybe an NIL deal, a massive one, could keep him in college, but I doubt it.
Rubin Jones will also graduate, along with Nimari Burnett. The Wolverines will lose four starters, along with Will Tschetter. Tre Donaldson has another year, as does Roddy Gayle. L.J. Cason will be just a sophomore, so that's a decent nucleus to build around.
Michigan basketball will need help in the frontcourt and one candidate is former Iowa big man Owen Freeman. The 6-foot-10, 230-pounder scored over 16 points per game last season and averaged 6.7 rebounds. He also shot 63 percent on 2-point attempts.
According to Joe Tipton, Michigan is one of the schools involved with Freeman. Arkansas is another, so are Gonzaga and Creighton. It's an interesting mix. It will certainly take a huge chunk of change to land Freeman, who has two seasons of eligibility left.
It's also unclear how effectively Michigan and others in the tournament can recruit, but after watching what the Wolverines have done this season, and knowing the role that can be filled, Freeman makes sense, especially if Dusty May gets the NIL support everyone has been talking about.