Following the disappointedly early exit from the NCAA Tournament by the men's basketball team, there were several departures that are worth mentioning. Of course there was the obvious departure of Stu Douglas and Zack Novak, since both were seniors, but there were a few surprises as well.
Evan Smotrycz, Carlton Brundidge and Colton Christian all decided to transfer from the University of Michigan last week. Smotrycz was a big contributor who started many games this last season; however, Brundidge had a few minutes here and there backing up Trey Burke and Christian would get a few minutes in mop up duty. So obviously the loss of Smotrycz is what is going to hurt the team the most. But with the class of freshman that are coming in this next season there was a good chance that his minutes were going to dwindle a bit with that added competition.
The loss of Brundidge could hurt Michigan as well since Burke is looking at his draft potential for the upcoming NBA draft. Hopefully Burke decides to stay at Michigan at least one more year since Coach Beilein has not yet received a commitment from a point guard to even back up Burke if he does stay. While Brundidge did appear to be behind in learning the system, he was the best available backup for Burke on the team.
While these departures hurt the team, at least we have some solid players coming in next season to lessen the impact. The biggest issue though is what happens if Trey Burke decides to also leave (for the NBA)? Time will tell, since we should know in a few weeks, but if he leaves, we could be in some trouble.
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