Michigan senior forward Brandon Johns Jr. enters transfer portal

Senior forward Brandon Johns Jr. has officially entered the transfer portal and will not be returning to the Michigan Wolverines for a fifth season, as first reported by On3 on Wednesday afternoon.

Johns Jr. becomes the second player from last year’s squad to enter the transfer portal, with Zeb Jackson announcing his commitment to VCU last week.

It was difficult for Brandon Johns Jr. to establish a rhythm in his four years with the Wolverines. After peaking with an average of 19.5 minutes per game in 2019-20 and beginning this past season as the starting power forward, he saw his minutes go down. This was due to the emergence of Moussa Diabate, the second-year improvements of Terrance Williams and brain farts by him on both ends of the court.

He just really never took another leap after his sophomore season, where he averaged 6.0 points and 3.9 rebounds per game and it looked like he would turn into a consistent contributor on both ends.

Johns Jr. proved to be a decent post defender late in this season, but he really could not contribute enough on offense to earn meaningful minutes in the second halves of games. The 20-point outbursts he had against Rutgers in 2020 or against Nebraska this past year stand out as his best individual performances as a Wolverine.

In his final season with the Wolverines, Johns Jr. averaged 3.2 points and 2.0 rebounds per game while shooting 36.1% from the field.

His transfer makes sense, considering everything above and the fact that the 4 spot is rather crowded for Michigan in 2022-23, with Diabate and Williams likely returning, plus Gregg Glenn and Will Tschetter fighting for playing time. It also wouldn’t surprise me if they tried playing Tarris Reed at the 4 alongside Hunter Dickinson at the 5 (if he returns) just to see what it looks like.

We at Maize n Brew wish Johns Jr. well and hope he can have a prosperous final chapter of his college basketball career.