Michigan transfer portal: Former Alabama wing Sam Walters visiting, two more targets emerge
Michigan Wolverines basketball head coach Dusty May was interviewed on the field at the football spring game Saturday and said “more good news is coming,” and he’s working to make that happens by filling out his roster with transfer players.
Multiple transfers are on campus for visits this weekend, including Ohio State guard Roddy Gayle Jr., Auburn guard Tre Donaldson and Appalachian State forward Justin Abson.
According to On3’s Joe Tipton, Alabama forward Sam Walters is also on a visit in Ann Arbor. Walters previously took a trip to Ohio State.
The 6-foot-10, 198-pounder played one season with Alabama and has three years of eligibility remaining. On3 ranks Walters as the No. 71 overall player and 17th-best power forward in the NCAA transfer portal.
Playing on the wing at both forward spots, Walters averaged 5.4 points and 2.4 rebounds in 12.3 minutes per game in 37 appearances off the bench for Alabama. He shot 48.1 percent on twos (25-of-52), 39.4 percent on threes (39-of-99) and 82.5 percent from the free throw line (33-of-40).
Walters is a jump shooter through and through, with 101 of his 151 field goal attempts coming on jumpers. He had a 57.9 effective field goal percentage on those looks as a freshman, ranking in the 92nd percentile in the country. Despite playing just 12.3 minutes on average, he got off 2.7 three-point attempts with 1.1 made threes per game. Ninety nine of his 101 jump shots came in catch-and-shoot situations.
The Athletic ranks Walters as the No. 68 overall player in the portal and highlighted his ability to shoot.
“Walters is a 3-point specialist who doesn’t need much room to shoot,” Sam Vecenie and CJ Moore wrote. “Walters was a floor spacer for the Crimson Tide, but he wasn’t afraid to put it on the floor and attack shot blockers at the rim.
“Walters is able to cross match onto perimeter players and can also handle himself against bigs. On the perimeter, he uses his length to give him some extra room to defend the ball and contain the dribble. You see his build and expect that he’d play soft, but he has some fight to him and can handle himself when a ball handler’s eyes light up and he decides he wants to take on Walters. He can play both forward spots.
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“It’ll be interesting to see what Walters becomes because his potential is enticing. With his size and stroke, he’ll be a guy NBA folks will be keeping an eye on.”
The Michigan target was a four-star recruit and the nation’s No. 69 overall prospect in the 2023 class. He attended The Villages (Fla.) Charter School, which is located northwest of Orlando.
Two more Michigan targets emerge
Michigan has reached out to two more transfer portal targets in Duke forward Sean Stewart and Manhattan guard/forward Seydou Traore, both of whom have three years of eligibility remaining.
A 6-foot-9, 227-pounder out of the elite Montverde (Fla.) Academy, Stewart just wrapped up his freshman season at Duke. He averaged 2.6 points and 3.2 rebounds in 8.4 minutes per game with 33 appearances off the bench. He shot 57.1 percent from the field (all two-pointers) as a power forward and center.
Stewart was a McDonald’s All-American in the 2023 class, a four-star recruit who slotted as the No. 17 overall player in the country. He’s extremely athletic, possessing a 36-inch standing vertical, the best mark in Duke history.
Traore, meanwhile, was a high-impact player on a Manhattan team that finished the year 7-23 and struggled mightily on both ends of the floor. He played forward and center for the Jaspers, registering 11.8 points, 8.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists per contest, while shooting 49 percent on twos (100-of-204) and 25.8 percent on threes (23-of-89). Traore cashed in on 62.9 percent of his shots at the rim.
Traore was an unranked recruit in the 2023 class out of New York Our Savior New American School.
