Hoops Recruitin' Keeps Quiet
Wilkes Visits, Adds Offer
Five-star 2017 Indiana wing Kris Wilkes visited Ann Arbor on Sunday. As expected, Michigan put forth an offer, though Wilkes has yet to offer up any quotes about it beyond a quick post-offer tweet. Most of the top Big Ten programs are after Wilkes, as are the likes of Butler, Kansas, UCLA, and Xavier. Kentucky, which hasn't offered him, currently leads his Crystal Ball.
Michigan's best bet in 2017 continues to be three-star in-state wing Jamal Cain. Last week, Scout's Brian Snow posted that Xavier is now "basically out" for Cain after adding 2017 wing Jared Ridder, who's also a 3/4 type; that leaves Michigan as the odds-on favorite.
Four-star OH wing Kyle Young, who also holds a Michigan offer, included the Wolverines in his top ten and told 247 he'll be on campus for M's team camp this month. Young is coming off a visit to Ohio State, which is considered the early favorite for him.
UMHoops's Sean Moran reports Michigan has been getting involved with top-100 2017 IL PG Nojel Eastern:
“After the first EYBL sessions a lot more schools have been involved,” said Eastern. “The head coaches text me more and I get more calls. New schools, Michigan, a lot of them call my mom, but the one that calls me is Michigan.”
Michigan needs a point guard this cycle and Eastern is one of the more intriguing prospects at the position: he's listed at 6'6", 200 pounds. If the coaches can get him on campus, an offer is likely to follow—MSU, OSU, Purdue, and Illinois are already among the schools to offer him.
[Hit THE JUMP for the rest of the roundup.]
No News Is No News
For those wondering about the status of Kentucky transfer Charles Matthews, there's nothing to report, and that's apparently by design. Matthews visited Michigan last week and has a trip to Xavier, the other school he's considering, coming up this weekend. Multiple outlets have mentioned his camp is deliberately staying silent while he's going through the process. Michigan was considered the favorite heading into these trips and I haven't seen anything that would change that opinion.
As for other possibilities to fill the open scholarship slots this season, Michigan hosted French wing Solly Stansbury last weekend. He left without an offer, and since UMHoops says the 21-year-old might have to sit out a season anyway, that probably will remain the case. MLive's Brendan Quinn, meanwhile, reports that Michigan is unlikely to pursue 2016 wing Harold Baruti, who the Wolverines took a look at before his commitment to (and subsequent parting of the ways from) Utah.
2018 Recruiting: M Offers Brandon Johns
Yesterday marked the opening of the offer period for 2018 prospects, and Michigan wasted no time putting one forth to four-star East Lansing wing Brandon Johns, who told TMI's Josh Henschke he's being recruited as a 2/3/4 combo by the Wolverines:
What does this offer mean for Johns? It doesn't necessarily put the Wolverines as the front-runner for him, but having the offer does put them in a good spot.
"Well I mean an offer period is such a blessing because like I said before not everyone can say they have a B1G school that has offered them," Johns said. "Michigan is definitely an option. I still have time left before I'm able to make a final decision on a college yet."
Johns will visit campus again "soon," according to Henschke. Michigan State, which didn't offer him yesterday, is the early Crystal Ball leader.
Johns was in great position to grab that offer because he'd already visited campus. He could soon be joined by three-star PA SG Robby Carmody, who's set to visit Michigan tomorrow.
For more 2018 prospects to monitor, UMHoops has an informative primer on M's targets in the class.
I've wonder if Cain and Matthews are mutually exclusive. They're simlar, and as Ace noted Xavier landing a similar player seemingly caused Cain to drop them.
I assume Michigan would take both. It would be great to land a PG, Cain, Matthews, and Young to go with Poole. But Cain might not see it that way.
Cain is a 3/4 in Beilein's system while Matthews is more of a 2/3. They could easily take both.
Cain would need to add a lot of strength to play the 4. Like, more than just a year or even maybe two type of weight.
Robinson and especially Dawkins were playing the 4 in Beilein's offense. I'd think Beilein can sell his offense to any wing that can handle the ball and shoot.
on Defense which is a big reason why we have been mediocre to bad the last couple of seasons. We really need to stop playing guys who are criminally undersized and/or statuesque on defense at the 4 spot.
I can't tell if it's because we've been so underwhelming the last two years that I've lost enthusiams or it's because Harbaugh/football is so positive that I don't have any enthusiasms left to give, but I just can't seem to get excited for basketball.
I generally love the recruiting updates of any kind but I'm just so meh about basketball right now. Right now I feel meh unknown to mankind.
Basketall recruiting is always going to seem more drawn out. Instead of following, let's say 115 offers in football, there's only about 15 basketball offerees.
Beilein just offered his first 2018 recruit and his fifth for 2017. Harbaugh has about 250 offers out for 2017.
thats exactly how I feel about the basketball team, too
I have little confidence in us winning any heavy recruiting battles at this point, which is so frustrating because it seemed like we were poised for a recruiting breakout after the 2013/14 seasons and it never happened.
Part of it is the result of Harbaugh. Another part of it is that we don't get the same amount of access to the basketball players.
I'm personally meh to the basketball recruiting now because it seems like any 4 star kid we have a good chance at only gave us that chance because the school they wanted to go to dropped out.
Thanks for update Ace. Really interested to see how they treat Easley going forward.
Also hard to get excited when we're talking guy in the 50-100 range, instead of having a few in the 10-30 slots. I guess it is a plus that the guys that we are in on are probably gonna be here for 3-4 years.
Guys in the 50-100 range are better than most of what we've gotten the past few years
Do bball highlight videos ever include defensive highlights? Is it even necessary? As a casual fan, I'd like to see this but I also suppose coaches could use plenty of other tools to assess defensive instincts or form.
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Limiting your options to only those who visit campus of their own volition continues to annoy the hell out of me.
The offer policy surely isn't the sole reason for U-M's recruiting issues, but these attempts to justify it are also a stretch.
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Because teenagers crave validation. Without an offer the great majority of teenagers, most especially teenagers with options, wont look twice at your school and a visit will be out of the question. But show them some love by making an offer and their curosity and interest is piqued. Dont underestimate the value of stroking these kids ego when it comes to gaining their attention.
You're ok with losing a few more games per year? You may be alone in that regard. Also the end of your post is a complete pipe dream.
"Pandering to recruits" is called recruiting. It's what our football coach does better than almost everyone else. By not recruiting the best of the best, you're only hurting yourself.
What do you mean they have to stick? The top basketball recruits are in school for 1, maybe 2 years. And if they're transferring out it means they weren't good enough, as was the case with some Kentucky and Duke players recently. Having top recruits transfer out because their playing time will get taken by better players is a problem I would love to have.
I completely disagree with your pollyanna viewpoint. This is real life.
...if anything he is showing young coaches what not to do with regards to recruiting practices.
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We're not asking to stoke egos. Just send a damn offer to an able kid before he visits. Then react from there. It's simple and takes little time.
I find it funny that you think JB is model of recruiting best practices and that he might shape future recruiting habits. Not happening.
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Uh, no it doesn't make a Michigan offer more valuable. Recruiting is a numbers game as I'm sure the staff has learned all too well over the past few years. You limit the number of offers you send out, you lower the chances of getting good players.
good luck with that strategy.
Harbaugh and company throwout offers to any decent looking football player in the country without them ever stepping foot on the campus and maybe never even checking out U of M website.
I think the idea is that an offer can make a kid more interested. That's why football programs like Alabama, Michigan, OSU, etc. are "offering" a ton of prospects right now. I don't love that extreme either, but there's plenty of ground between what Beilein's doing and what Harbaugh's doing that seems both honest and advantageous.
would have to sit out. Do you know what the NCAA rule is?
can you check your basketball superguides to see if that would be the first Nojel to play for us?
Wilson? Matthews? Cain? The field?
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