Late last month, former Ohio guard Jaaron Simmons announced that he was transferring to the University of Michigan as a college graduate for his final year of playing eligibility. However, that decision was in limbo due to Simmons having his name in the NBA Draft pool with eligibility remaining.
But after multiple weeks of scouting and working out for teams, and the Scouting Combine coming and going, Simmons has decided to withdraw his name from draft consideration and will enroll at Michigan for the upcoming season.
Ohio grad transfer Jaaron Simmons is ready to withdraw from NBA Draft, enroll at Michigan https://t.co/empfMArbj1
— Brendan Quinn (@BFQuinn) May 18, 2017
Per Brendan Quinn of MLive, Simmons has not officially withdrawn his name but he is “in the process” of doing so and it is “definitely the way he’s going.” For a player in Simmons’ situation — one that chooses to return to school — they must submit multiple forms. One goes to NBA commissioner Adam Silver detailing his exit from the draft, and one to the athletic director of his intended university — in this case, Michigan AD Warde Manuel — on resuming intercollegiate participation.
Photo Credit: MGoBlog/FlickrSimmons did not receive an invite to the Combine last week, nor did he get a chance to work out privately for any teams. His announcement comes less than a week before the deadline (May 24) for any player with college eligibility remaining to withdraw their name.
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With his decision, Simmons’ claims the only open scholarship spot available for Michigan. There is the possibility that two more spots open up, should big men Moe Wagner and D.J. Wilson retain their draft status and consideration through the May 24 deadline.
It had been sort of a domino effect for Simmons to claim that scholarship spot. Michigan had been holding onto that vacancy for 5-star prospect Mohamed Bamba, who ultimately committed to the University of Texas on Thursday.
Simmons has spent each of the last two seasons at Ohio (2015-17), where in 66 games with the Bobcats he averaged 15.7 points and 7.2 assists per game, and was a modest threat from outside at 37.3 percent. He did however average close to 4.0 turnovers per contest over those two seasons at Ohio. He became a starter with the Bobcats after seeing minimal time as a freshman at the University of Houston (2013-14).
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What Simmons will bring to Michigan is a competent enough fill-in for graduating senior Derrick Walton Jr. and another experienced point guard for soon-to-be sophomore Xavier Simpson to shadow and learn from.
So it’s one grad transfer coming in to Michigan after two graduates departed from the program this offseason. Also last month, Mark Donnal announced he would finish his collegiate career at Clemson. And most recently, Andrew Dakich said he’d sign on to play at Quinnipiac next season.
