This time of year in college basketball, a lot of the headlines in the news cycle revolve around

what new players can be or will be joining a program. Talk about the incoming freshman class

and their arrival on campus. Talk about potential targets in the transfer portal, which

that portal is always enticing. But many times, the true need for a program,

the true opportunity to be seized, can be done so by individuals already within the program.

Michigan men's basketball has endured plenty of changes over the last few months since

returning to the Sweet 16th for a fifth consecutive NCAA tournament.

A couple of weeks back, we talked with Will Cheddar, young man, who did not play in his first season in Ann Arbor,

and about his potential path to playing time.

Well, on this episode, we do the same with Isaiah Barnes.

Shortly after I talked with Isaiah, John Sanderson, the prolific

strength and conditioning coach for the program, tweeted out, this kid's got it. He's been

incredible, work ethic, dedication, consistency, etc. He's checked every box to have a great year

of development. 179 pounds, up to 200 pounds, body weight, and added five and a half inches to

his vert, go blue. That's high praise from John Sanderson, someone who has transformed players

in his time with this program. For Isaiah Barnes, it's an opportunity this offseason with a lot

of attrition, a lot of movement to try to seize some playing time.

Now, all of those things, work ethic, dedication, consistency, they've been there with Isaiah

ever since he arrived. We talked to Phil Martelli shortly after last year's prolific

freshman class, a six-person group that has now been whittled down to three still in the program,

and he mentioned about Isaiah that it took him some time to get acclimated.

And that honesty came through both from Coach Martelli and from Isaiah.

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