As I record this on Tuesday morning, there's still some unknown, some pretty significant unknown,

about the status of Caleb Houston and Musa Diabate.

The deadline to remove your name from the NBA draft process and return to college is imminent.

It's coming up Wednesday.

That's June 1st.

So by midweek, we will know, finally, if Michigan will return nine players or eight players

or seven players from last year's Sweet 16 Club.

In college basketball, that number will seemingly always fluctuate, though it's not so much

about the number.

It is about the who in the who stays and who goes.

For Michigan, if both Diabate and Houston leave, their seven who's would be Hunter Dickinson,

Terrence Williams II, Kobe Buffkin, Jace Howard, Ian Burns, Isaiah Barnes,

and Will Cheddar, the last of whom is today's guest. So the big man is still here,

obviously a huge boost to this team's ceiling and floor. T. Will, who we spoke with a few weeks

back, he's certainly a breakout candidate. And of course, Michigan brings in a wealth of talent

with its freshman class, something that seems to be a trend under head coach

Juan Howard.

But there are five names there, take out Dickinson, take out Williams, and four scholarship

players with a golden opportunity to go from either fringe bench options down the stretch

like Buffkin and Howard or red shirts last year in Barnes and Cheddar.

They could go from that to real contributors

on a team expecting to contend for a Big Ten title.

...