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Michigan basketball: All eyes on portal transfer Jose Perez

Chris Balasby:Chris Balas•07/05/23•

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Michigan was looking at West Virginia transfer Jose Perez. He'll stay at WVU. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images)

As noted repeatedly, Michigan has been eyeing the portal in search of guards to help complete the 2023-24 roster. One — West Virginia’s Jose Perez — has emerged as a serious candidate for head coach Juwan Howard and the Wolverines.

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Perez (6-5, 220) spent his first two seasons at Gardner-Webb, where he averaged 15.1 points per game in 2018-19 and 15.2 in 2019-20. He played in 10 games after transferring to Marquette, averaging 3.1 points per game before a coaching change sent him back to the portal.

From there, Perez ended up at Manhattan, where he scored 18.9 points per game with a career-best 4.5 assists and 3.2 rebounds per game. He transferred to West Virginia and tried to get a waiver to play immediately, but he was denied — as was an appeal. With Bob Huggins out at WVU, Perez is on the move again, and Michigan is on it.

Though he’s not known as a shooter (more a scorer), Perez has been a high usage guy in his career. He did make 38.1 percent of his triples in his first year at Gardner-Webb, shooting 44.8 percent overall, but he was at 39.9 percent overall and 25.9 from long range last season. He also shot a career-best 80.2 percent from the free throw line going into the preseason as the 2022-23 MAAC player of the year.

Perez will have one more year of eligibility remaining.

Howard and his staff have had a busy offseason after losing Hunter Dickinson to Kansas and Jett Howard and Kobe Bufkin to the NBA. They added Tennessee forward Olivier Nkamhoua, Seton Hall forward Tray Jackson, and Alabama wing Nimari Burnett. All three are expected to play big minutes this year.

The Wolverines also received a commitment from North Carolina’s Caleb Love. He had admissions issues, though, and ended up at Arizona.

If Perez were to join the team, that should do finalize this year’s roster.

Only two starters — point guard Dug McDaniel and forward Terrance Williams II — return from last year’s NIT team.

Watch for more on this potential development in the hours to come …

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