On IU’s roster, he’ll be listed by his given name, Max Bielfeldt.
IU filled one of its two open scholarships for next season Tuesday evening when Bielfeldt, a graduate transfer from Michigan, committed to IU over Iowa State and Nebraska. He won an appeal which allowed him to transfer within the Big Ten after a scholarship wasn’t available for him to continue his career at Michigan.
The 6-foot-8, 245-pound forward will spend his final year of eligibility in Bloomington, where he’ll add size, experience and depth to the Hoosiers’ frontcourt, which took a hit when forwards Hanner Mosquera-Perea and Devin Davis were dismissed from the team in May.
Because Bielfeldt graduated from Michigan this spring and will enroll in a graduate program at IU, he’s eligible to play ?immediately.
Stu Douglass, a former Michigan guard who now plays professionally in Israel, was a senior in 2011-12 when Bielfeldt was a redshirt freshman. Douglass formed his first impression of the power forward during open gyms before the season started.
“He wasn’t shy about pushing people around and being strong down low,” Douglass said. “He came in and made his presence felt. You definitely took notice of him.”
The Wolverines didn’t need another big man and they played small lineups that season, Douglass said, hence the redshirt year, but Bielfeldt pushed Michigan’s starting center around in practice.
“There were definitely some good battles,” Douglass said. “That’s for sure.”
Gavin Sullivan, president and director of the Illinois Irish AAU program — formerly known as the Peoria Irish when Bielfeldt was in high school — said his former player can be used in pick-and-pop situations, pick-and-rolls and post-ups on the block.
“He’s a big S.O.B., man,” Sullivan said. “His legs are like tree trunks. It’s really hard to move him off the block.”
Bielfeldt was always tall, Sullivan said, but on the pudgier side. His size opened the door to his nicknames, which started in Peoria, Ill., his hometown, and followed him to Ann Arbor, Mich.
“Then at Michigan they really chiseled him out,” Sullivan said. “He was always a big high school kid, but he’s definitely got the man’s body now.”
The forward’s calves have gained enough notoriety that they have their own Twitter handle. Bielfeldt’s size, along with his experience playing in the Big Ten, could be two important assets.
After redshirting at Michigan, he played in 69 games during the next three seasons. During his Wolverine career, Michigan won two Big Ten regular season titles and went to the NCAA Tournament three times, including a national runner-up finish in 2013.
Bielfeldt’s stats aren’t overwhelming — 5.1 points and 3.6 rebounds per game last season — but he earned Michigan’s Sixth Man Award this spring after playing sparingly the previous two seasons.
“Being a fifth-year transfer, you want to go somewhere where you can contribute, whether it’s (as) a starter or one of the first big guys off the bench,” Sullivan said. “Everybody’s one ankle injury away from starting.”
IU returns four regular starters from last season, all of whom are guards or wing players. IU Coach Tom Crean will have to replace Mosquera-Perea in the starting five, and incoming McDonald’s All-American big man Thomas Bryant seems to be the presumptive choice.
But Bielfeldt could position himself to be one of Crean’s first frontcourt options off the bench next season. Add up the number of years the rest of IU’s forwards — Collin Hartman, Emmitt Holt, Juwan Morgan and O.G. Anunoby — have spent on a college campus and the total is still less than Bielfeldt’s.
“He’s definitely been through it all besides winning a national championship,” Sullivan said. “He’s pretty much done everything else. I think that will help IU, some of those guys maybe understand what it is to get over that hump.”
At Michigan, Bielfeldt roomed with the Big Ten Player of the Year in back-to-back years, Sullivan said.
First it was Trey Burke, then Nik Stauskas, both of whom went on to become lottery picks in the NBA Draft.
“Not too bad,” Sullivan said. “Two pretty good guys to room with while you’re in college.”
Luckily for Bielfeldt, he won’t arrive in Bloomington facing expectations of matching the individual accomplishments of his former roommates. He’s yet another piece to the puzzle for an IU team which finds itself in the top 15 of most preseason polls.
He’ll be asked to play steady minutes in a complementary role to IU’s potential NBA prospects — Yogi Ferrell, James Blackmon Jr, Troy Williams and Bryant.
Just like he was in Ann Arbor.
“With Michigan he was always put out there to make the right play — not to do anything flashy, not asked to score a lot of points, although he’s definitely capable of shooting,” Douglass said. “He just goes out there and plays the right away.”
