Michigan basketball lands coveted Princeton transfer Jaelin Llewellyn
Michigan basketball coach Juwan Howard, just as he has done the past two years, has dipped into the transfer portal to secure a veteran guard.
The Wolverines landed a verbal commitment from Princeton guard Jaelin Llewellyn (6 feet 2, 185 pounds) on Friday after the former four-star recruit visited Ann Arbor this week.
Llewellyn averaged 15.7 points, 4.1 rebounds, 2.5 assists and shot 38.6% from 3-point range for the Tigers last season to earn first-team All-Ivy League honors. Princeton went 23-7 and won the Ivy League regular season title, but lost to Yale in the conference championship game and bowed out in the first round of the NIT.
Llewellyn follows in the footsteps of former Columbia point guard Mike Smith and former Coastal Carolina point guard DeVante’ Jones as graduate transfers to jump from smaller conferences to U-M. Llewellyn's addition offsets some of the production and basketball savvy lost through the departures of Jones and shooting guard Eli Brooks, the most senior members of last year’s squad.
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In Llewellyn, the Wolverines secured a player highly rated coming out of Virginia Episcopal School in Lynchburg, Virginia. He was the No. 99 overall prospect in the 247Sports Composite rankings for the class of 2018 and held scholarship offers from Cincinnati, Clemson, Creighton, Florida, Georgetown, Ohio State, Providence, Purdue, Tennessee and Virginia, among others.
Llewellyn, a native of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, became an immediate starter for the Tigers under coach Mitch Henderson and averaged 10.1 points per game as a true freshman. He was the first freshman to lead Princeton in assists (2.6 per game) since 2007 and the first freshman to average double figures in scoring since 2016.
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For a coach like Howard, who constantly stresses the importance of a “growth mindset” in player development, the improvements Llewellyn made at Princeton had to be encouraging. Llewellyn increased his scoring average, field goal percentage and 3-point field goal percentage every year with the Tigers, as he blossomed into one of the best guards in the Ivy.
The infusion of perimeter shooting will be particularly welcome on a team that ranked 11th in the Big Ten in 3-pointers last season, and whose best shooter, small forward Caleb Houstan, ranked 15th in the league in made 3s. Eleven times Llewellyn splashed at least three 3-pointers in a game during the 2021-22 campaign and his total of 64 made 3s would have led the Wolverines.
One area to watch for Llewellyn is his free-throw shooting was erratic at Princeton: 57.9% in 2018-19; 78% in 2019-20; 69.6% in 2021-22 (39-for-56). The Ivy League did not conduct winter sports in 2020-21.
Llewellyn also adds needed maturity to a backcourt that was extremely young prior to his commitment. Rising sophomores Frankie Collins and Kobe Bufkin played bit roles for most of the season and proved unreliable beyond the 3-point line. Incoming freshman Dug McDaniel, a four-star prospect rated No. 70 overall, is still developing as a shooter.
Howard fared well when he plucked Smith and Jones from the portal each of the past two years. Llewellyn will be held to the same standard.
Contact Michael Cohen at mcohen@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @Michael_Cohen13.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan basketball lands Princeton transfer Jaelin Llewellyn
