Michigan basketball targeting Tulane transfer Kolby King
Michigan Wolverines basketball has reached out to Tulane point guard transfer Kolby King, according to On3’s Jamie Shaw. The Wolverines are among the schools contacting him the most, King said, along with Virginia Tech, Arizona State, Arkansas, USC, Oklahoma State, Dayton, Butler, George Mason, East Carolina, Wichita State, Rice and Murray State.
King played his freshman season at St. John’s in 2022-23 and sophomore year with Tulane in 2023-24. He has two years of eligibility remaining.
The 6-foot-2, 190-pounder opened 23 of 31 games this past season, averaging 10.4 points, 3.6 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game while playing both guard spots. He shot 56.1 percent on twos (69-of-123), 36.8 percent on threes (35-of-95) and 74.4 percent at the free throw line (58-of-78).
Tulane finished 14-17 overall and 10th of 14 teams in the American Athletic Conference, the same league that new Michigan head man Dusty May coached in for Florida Atlantic.
King generated 0.884 points per possession on ball screens (including passes), ranking in the 52nd percentile in the country. He was also used as a spot-up shooter, posting a 63.5 effective field goal percentage on catch-and-shoot jumpers (91st percentile). He also made 64.4 percent of his attempts at the rim.
The Pompano Beach (Fla.) native appeared in 25 games off the bench for St. John’s in 2022-23. He averaged just 1.7 points in 7.7 minutes per game, scoring a season-best 8 points in a 72-70 overtime loss to Marquette in the Big East Tournament, ending the Red Storm’s season.
The Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Pembroke Pines Charter product was a three-star recruit and the No. 264 overall recruit in the 2022 class, according to the On3 Industry Ranking.
Michigan has reached out to other point guards in the transfer portal, with the Wolverines having lost starting lead guard Dug McDaniel to Kansas State. Toledo’s Dante Maddox Jr., Georgetown’s Rowan Brumbaugh and Oklahoma’s Javian McCollum are among those May has contacted.
May will have to be active in the portal this offseason, after losing most of Michigan’s roster from a year ago.
“Recruiting now in the portal is is more like speed dating than the traditional recruiting,” May said. “And I think it’s very, very valuable to have a network of people that you trust, and they trust you.
“We’re going to cast a big net, then we’ll narrow it down. We’ll be very, very patient because we’re not going to take the wrong guys just because we have several spots. We’re going to be very thorough but understand that we need to be right we need to do our research in advance and make sure we make very calculated decisions, because there are a lot of options and they’re not all great options.”
