Michigan High School First-Team All-State honors and All-County Boys Player of the Year after averaging 24.8 points, 10.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists, and 2.5 steals per gameâŚcareer goal is to graduate with his masterâs degree and to play basketball professionally.
Originally offered by Miami out of high school (with MAC schools and Cal Poly), also made the Horizon all-freshman team. Great pickup, will need to get used to saying Elam instead of Elmer.
Love this addition! Welcome, Stevie
Nearly 5 boards a game as a guard? Nice. Now letâs land a big man.
Between Skal, Ip, Kirby and now Elam, very solid back court rotation.
If we can land a premier big we are fully loaded. A wing that can knock it down wouldnât hurt either.
Miami Menâs Basketball Signs Stevie Elam - Miami University RedHawks Miami Menâs Basketball Signs Stevie Elam - Miami University RedHawks
It looks like Elam also plans to take Elmerâs #0 jersey!
Think heâll be better than Perry, but comparable. Now need a post presence and a 3 and D. Super excited about this off-season outside of losing Elmer who I thought would stay. Clearly is being paid. Câest la vie.
This feels like exactly the kind of guard weâd want to target. I could easily see him starting at the 2. Seems like a scorer first (very few assists) can shoot the 3, and rebound well for his size. Would still be a small back court, but I think itâs manageable. Feels like an upgrade potentially vs. Perry.
We need a big. It would be really nice to add another wing. Seems like we might be retaining T. Steele!
Elam signing looks to be a case of âsign best available playerâ as opposed to signing âfor needâ. As some stated earlier, obviously we need a true center in the portal for the loss of Woolfolk and likely a taller/athletic wing. I think both will happen in the portal future. And for good measure we could probably use one more frontcourt guy as a potential depth piece just in case.
Elam is a good player and has apparent bulk/strength despite only being listed at 6â3. Seems like another Kirby type player. Plays bigger than he is. Solid all around game and shot well from arc as freshmanâall good signs for future growth. If he was 6â6 Iâd LOVE this signing. Iâd give this a solid âB" grade.
Wonder if Miami is looking into Colin White formerly of Ohio Stâwas offered by Miami in high school. Could be ideal wing with athleticism/size looking to actually play after two years riding the bench. He could be very good in the MACâassume he will likely have several suitors and probably many in the MAC.
Elam is a guard the team needs in the event Evan is slowed in recovery. Gotta believe if Perry stayed Elam would not be in the mix.
Colin White would be a great addition. His lack of stats at Ohio State are a non-factor in his ability.
Grabbing a big to replace Woolfolk has to be a priority
I give this an A, because adding to the depth at the 1/2 became a priority when Perry decided to enter the portal. And Elam is a proven scorer and rebounder at the mid major level. His production as a freshman was terrific. And the uncertainty with Evan coming back from injury, and Luke just having surgery which by all accounts went well. So now with Evan, Luke, Elam, and Kirby we have a solid core at the 1/2 and Kirby, and maybe Elam, can play the 3 as well. Granted I donât have any inside information or direct connection to the staff as some others might, but that is my own take of Elam. Our priority in my mind hasnât changed from senior night. And that is replacing Woolfolk. We need an athletic big. I personally would like 2, but at least one. And a wing to shore up that position. I think Waltz has tremendous potential but pulling in a wing from the portal, be it White, or someone else, would be Miamiâs only remaining priority, in addition of course to filling the aforementioned big spot.
Elam put up less than an assist per game despite averaging 26 minutes. If Ipsaro isnât ready to go at the start, do we have anyone other than Skaljac who can run the point?
I see Elam as more of an Byers replacement than Perry. I would hope that our offense will give Elam sufficient opportunity to raise his 3P% from 35% (which he shot last year as a FR) to closer to the 40% clip Brant shot at.
You can fairly interpret the staffâs reticence to play Waltz down the stretch (including when we were down a key rotation piece in 2 games) as a question mark for if heâll be able to contribute really meaningful minutes next season. So, despite some incongruity in position, I like where this signing puts us in terms of replacing lost shooting. I also like the Waltz wonât be thrown into the fire if they staff doesnât think heâs ready.
I suspect weâre still in the market for a ball handler or at least a hybrid/Suder type along with the bigs. Colin White, who @Hoophawk30 mentioned, was a target of Steele out of HS and there is quite a bit of (seemingly credible) internet fodder that links him to Miami in this current recruiting cycle.
Then there are the bigs. Copeland seems to be our top target but at 6â9 he would leave us undersized just as we were with Woolfolk. And, again, query the staffâs belief in Robbinsâ ability to handle big minutes next season based on his playing time this year. I would like to think there is another option, but all reports are that even half-competent bigs are commanding big cash this offseason.
Colin White averaged about 8 minutes a game at OSU and not sure if he was inserted into meaningful part of the games. His shooting percentages were just atrociousâŚ.39% from the field and hardly made any free throws. Again, not sure if he mostly saw action just during âgarbage timeâ at the end of blowouts where he just got to throw up a shot or two here and there.
He was never a Big Ten caliber player but weâve had pretty great success with kids from Ottawa-Glandorf.
Colin White played behind Devin Royal (30-32 min per game) and when Ohio State went guard heavy (3) that would limit his time. I wouldnât look at his production at Ohio State as something that should keep Miami (or others) away. Heâs very talented and could thrive at a place like Miami
Gotcha. It was more his free throw shooting of 20% that kinda alarmed me. Maybe he only got 5 attempts and made 1.