After just one season with Columbia basketball, Jaron Faulds announced he is transferring to Michigan as a preferred walk-on. The former Columbia center announced the transfer via Twitter today, and was confirmed by a U-M press release.
Go Blue! 〽️ pic.twitter.com/wXha7WMhft
— Jaron Faulds (@JaronFaulds) June 29, 2018
“We are pleased to announce the addition of Jaron to our roster for this upcoming season,” head coach John Beilein said in the press release. “He has a lot of potential and brings collegiate experience to this young team. With a lot of hard work, he will play an important role in our team’s development and future success in the years to come.”
According to Nick Baumgardner of the Detroit Free Press, Faulds played prep basketball at Holt as a first-team all-state player.
In high school, Faulds averaged 17 points and 11.5 rebounds his senior year and was ranked the No. 7 player in Michigan for the class of 2017. He also set his school record of 261 blocked shots and the single-season rebounding record of 278 in 2016-17.
The 6-foot-10, 225-pounder averaged 4.5 points and 3.2 rebounds in 14.2 minutes per game at Columbia last season. He played in 26 games (starting only one) as a true freshman.
The Wolverines lost their leading scorer, Moritz Wagner, to the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2018 NBA Draft. As the program looks to fill that void with players like Jon Teske and Austin Davis, someone like Faulds with impressive defensive play could prove beneficial in the interim, even as a non-scholarship athlete.
Faulds will still have to sit out the 2018-19 season, per NCAA transfer rules.