Utah Valley center Fardaws Aimaq (6-11/245) has committed to Texas Tech. Aimaq is originally from Canada, played his first year at Mercer where he averaged 5 points a game, then transferred to Utah Valley where he immediately put up significantly better numbers, 13.9 points and 15 rebounds as a sophomore, then 18.9 points and 13.6 boards a game as a junior.

Love this game to my core🖤 pic.twitter.com/m0d4jIZWGG

— Fardaws Aimaq (@FardawsAimaq) March 30, 2022

The advanced stats would tell us that he has the ball a ton, a relatively high usage rate 28.7. Aimaq is an elite defensive rebounder, even at the WAC level, an an excellent shot-blocker without being a high turnover or assist guy. Aimaq shot 48% from the floor, which is a bit odd for a 6’11” center, 61% on anything close to the rim and 37% from anything far away, but he surprisingly shot 44% from 3-point range, hoisting up 45 shots last year.

With Aimaq’s commitment, that brings the roster to 12, which means that there’s one spot remaining and I’m still guessing there will be additional movement as we move forward.

There was also a dust-up with Terrence Shannon yesterday picking Illinois when it appeared that he would go to Michigan last weekend. A few of the Michigan players stated on Twitter that Mark Adams wouldn’t sign off on classes during summer school for Shannon, which then prohibited him from playing at Michigan. It is my understanding that Mark Adams nor Texas Tech would prohibit Shannon from taking summer school classes. I’m sure I could take classes during the summer if I wanted to, but my guess is that Adams didn’t want to foot the bill for Shannon and pay for summer school, which makes sense, but that Shannon could have paid for it on his own. Not only that, but that would also mean that Shannon’s scholarship spot would be reserved for him rather than bring on a player during the summer (as an example, Aimaq could arrive during the summer to take Shannon’s spot).

Texas Tech should keep transferring player on scholarship in the summer instead of bringing in new player? That’s the criticism?

Not the only option. Player could take classes and (gulp) pay on own or Michigan NIL could pony up the money. Some projection by Dickinson going on. https://t.co/hdNGjEzkyH

— Erick Smith (@ericksmith) April 29, 2022

Of course Shannon announced he was transferring almost immediately after the NCAA run last year so I am not sure what further obligation that Adams had other than to let him finish out the spring under scholarship.

Eligibility Chart

TR = Entered Transfer Portal; WO = Walk-on; NBA = Declared for NBA Draft; GW = played at Gardner-Webb; UO = played at Oregon; UV = played at Utah Valley