Hoops Recruitin' Still Fishing For a Five-Star
Coach Howard and crew are set on pulling in a projected one-and-done type that would likely change perception of the recruiting prowess in Ann Arbor. The staff has done a great job getting such prospects on campus and making various top lists after getting in the mix relatively late in the game. The recruiting chops seem legit, but it will be an open question until a five-star makes a pledge to the good guys.
Momma Knows Best
Top-15 forward Isaiah Todd was on campus for an official visit last weekend and the early returns are good. I was able to catch up with Todd’s mother yesterday and she certainly gave off positive vibes.
“We love Michigan. We had a wonderful time, the staff was great.”
The Wolverines envision a versatile role for the 6’10 senior, allowing him to explore his game from multiple spots on the court.
“The coaching staff sees Isaiah as a stretch 4, giving him the freedom to showcase all of his talent.”
A final five which includes Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas and Memphis along with Michigan generally incites one to pump the brakes. But Todd has visited UNC on multiple occasions without a commitment, cancelled a scheduled official to Memphis and details have yet to emerge about planned visits to both Kansas and Kentucky. Rivals’ Corey Evans recently retracted a UNC prediction and considers Michigan a darkhorse.
There have been mild concerns about Isaiah’s consistency over the last year. As someone with several live evaluations of the Virginia-native last Summer, there is no doubt he has the look of a future lottery pick down the road. Athletic 6’10 wing-forwards with a pull-up jumper off the bounce don’t grow on trees.
Yes, please.
[Hit THE JUMP for more visit notes and your weekly Nimari Burnett update.]
Holding Pattern
Montverde Academy four-star wing Moses Moody also made his way to campus for an official visit last weekend. Information on what type of impression the staff was able to make has been scant. 2020 four-star commit Zeb Jackson is Moody’s high school teammate at Montverde and no doubt pitching the Wolverines as a landing spot.
Prolific Prep guard Nimari Burnett took an OV to Alabama over the weekend and came away impressed but is holding steady with his final four.
“It’s still an even playing field so far, but by them making me a priority, that definitely put them in a good spot. Alabama hit all the check-marks.”
Alabama is definitely a serious contender here, but the plan for now is to complete remaining officials to both Texas Tech and Oregon before making a commitment in December-January. Team performance and potential early entries will be a factor for Michigan and Alabama programs that have newly minted head coaches.
In the hoops recruiting edition of BPONE, Michigan appeared to be one of the favorites for top-40 center Hunter Dickinson after Walker Kessler made a surprise commitment to UNC over Duke. Juwan Howard and the full staff were in for Dickinson on Thursday and a few crystal balls dropped in favor of the Wolverines. Naturally, the response from Coach K was to offer Dickinson on Friday.
A solid source indicates that Duke is set on taking two bigs this cycle and will aggressively pursue top-30 center Mark Williams, for whom Michigan also made the final 5 for, and Dickinson. Duke has received the last 6 crystal balls for Williams and it’s a safe bet he’ll end up in Durham. To date, Dickinson has yet to set up a visit to Duke, but one has to assume it will occur considering Duke sent the full staff for a home-visit on Saturday.
Reading between the lines, it appears Dickinson has an informal top four of Michigan, Duke, Florida State (recent OV) and Notre Dame. The Irish were all hands on deck for a home-visit yesterday despite picking up a commitment from three-star big Matt Zona earlier in the day and having a recent pledge from three-star big Elijah Taylor.
The hope here is that Michigan can sell Dickinson on being an integral part of Michigan’s offense as opposed to just a guy at Duke.
Three-star forward Jace Howard is slated take an OV this weekend. The son of Juwan, expect a commitment sometime in the near future.
Huntington Prep four-star forward Jaemyn Brakefield will be on campus for an official visit this weekend as well.
Happy Trails
As expected, top-40 forward Henry Coleman committed to Duke.
Waterford Mott four-star F/C Isaiah Jackson released a top 3 that didn’t include Michigan. The Wolverines never pursued with diligence for various reasons, so this comes as no surprise.
October 1st, 2019 at 1:20 PM ^
Must be nice to have the national media cover for systemic cheating at places like Duke especially after K stopped coaching and just went full one and done.
Coach K is now one of the biggest frauds in sports.
October 1st, 2019 at 1:35 PM ^
He's been a fraud for years. Yeah, pretty good coach, but it's easy to look smart when you can buy the best players every year. Too bad Tark didn't come all the way clean when his UNLV teams were gleefully torn apart after those tourney games with Duke.
I can't stand Sheshevsky. Besides, I've always heard he's an asshole to whoever he doesn't need in his orbit. True, or not, I'll believe that to be true...
October 1st, 2019 at 2:02 PM ^
K's only real game strategy is to foul the crap out of teams late in games because he knows the refs are in his pocket.
It is funny that with all the one-and-done talent that's come through there, Okafor and Tyus Jones was the only group that won a title.
October 1st, 2019 at 2:21 PM ^
He's underachieved with the talent he's had IMO. He's basically had NBA squads out there but with success on par with us recently.
October 1st, 2019 at 7:13 PM ^
The media doesn't cover it because very few people care about "cheating" in the NCAA anymore. Do you still care? You should stop because your rage is increasingly impotent.
October 1st, 2019 at 8:54 PM ^
Most people care about cheating in the NCAA.
October 1st, 2019 at 10:28 PM ^
What do you base that on? Michigan has always had one of the more sanctimonious fanbases about this stuff and you can feel the decline in pearl-clutchers with each passing year on this site. There's an expanding consciousness that all these rules do is protect the exploiters and the "crimes" are victimless.
If you care, you're a total sucker.
October 1st, 2019 at 10:32 PM ^
Spot freaking on.
October 1st, 2019 at 1:31 PM ^
I'm still very unsure about this class. Sam Webb seemed rather optimistic about Moses Moody this morning on the Recruiting Roundup. The ideal scenario seems like it would be a class of Zeb Jackson, Nimari Burnett, Moses Moody, Hunter Dickinson, Isaiah Todd and Jace Howard as a walk on, but that's most likely not gonna happen. If we could pull even a few of those guys, that would be ideal
October 1st, 2019 at 2:30 PM ^
Lol.
Getting just 1 of Burnett, Dickinson, Moody, or Todd (and the other top targets) would be a home run.
October 1st, 2019 at 2:41 PM ^
1 would not be a home run. 2 or 3 of those guys would be a home run. Getting any less than 2 of those guys should be considered a failure because we'll have a recruiting class of like 3 guys including Jace Howard, when we needed a class of 5
October 1st, 2019 at 2:52 PM ^
Maybe home run was an overstatement. 1 should be an attainable goal. I think you’re setting yourself up for disappointment here if you’re setting 2 as the minimum.
There are 4 open spots, I am assuming Howard and Zeb take 2. We can nab one of these top guys then send out some new offers in the later period. Davis may or may not get a 5th year, but we have left a spot open many years regardless.
October 1st, 2019 at 3:08 PM ^
I'm saying it would be a failure because Juwan is basically swinging for the fences right now. If we don't grab a few of those guys, then this is going to be a bad class for Juwan as he's only offered top 50 guys plus his son. We have no safety net or fallback options
October 1st, 2019 at 1:34 PM ^
Howard just seems like such a good guy and mentor. I really hope that plays a huge role in landing some top talent. Connections and experience in the NBA are huge. Looking forward to hopefully a surprise season.
October 1st, 2019 at 2:04 PM ^
Having Dook offer Dickinson is definitely not good news. They usually get who they want. I hope though that somehow Howard can pull Dickinson away from the Black Hole of Durham, a la the Mitch McGary recruitment.
October 1st, 2019 at 2:14 PM ^
We probably need that first domino to fall and then we will probably get a couple more top recruits. It has to be difficult for a clean program to reel in these 5 stars when you're competing against dirty programs which pull in a complete class of 5 stars every year. If we really want to compete against other top programs, we probably need to pick up a 5 star or two every year - or at least a couple near 5 star top 50 players.
October 1st, 2019 at 2:17 PM ^
Or we could just get a little dirty.....
October 1st, 2019 at 3:08 PM ^
Unfortunately, I cannot use, "That's what she said." I didn't marry the Mad Hatter type.
October 1st, 2019 at 2:51 PM ^
Let the one and done players go overseas, to the g league, to the pros.
Get college b ball back to the student athlete. At least, like baseball, commit to play 3 years or be gone.
October 1st, 2019 at 2:53 PM ^
Get at least one 5* (one and done) and win a game in the tournament and I think the wheels will be in motion.
October 2nd, 2019 at 5:19 AM ^
I'd be over the moon with that tbh
October 1st, 2019 at 3:54 PM ^
Keep swinging big JH!
October 1st, 2019 at 7:35 PM ^
I see where Isaiah Jackson is trending to Alabama currently. Hopefully Burnett doesn't go there as well but it seems the visit went really well.
October 2nd, 2019 at 10:41 AM ^
Love the "just a guy at duke" bit. It's so true - last year the #33 recruit, based on 247, was the 5th member of the class with Zion, RJ, Cam and Tre Jones - I bet 99% of the people here can't name him. That's because he rode the pine totaling 18 minutes the entire year. For Dickinson to join that class would be mind boggling. He could be the best center prospect in the B1G walking into significant playing time.
October 2nd, 2019 at 4:45 PM ^
- Logically, I know most of us asked for or at least anticipated JH25 recruiting the blue chip kids far more than JB ever did.
- Logically, I know that on a comparative basis, JH25 is an objectively better in-person recruiter than JB ever was.
- Logically, I know that early signs indicate we are in the top 3 or 4 schools with FAR more blue chip top recruits than we ever were with JB, which is a necessary early indication that the overall JH25 recruiting is going to work. Therefore, "so far, so good."
- And yet....until we actually land a fair amount of those top targeted guys, I'm going to be a nervous wreck.
It's one thing JH25 to be an objectively better/more aggressive recruiter than JB ever was. But ultiamtely that isn't the metric that really matters. What matters now is whether or not JB25 can WIN his fair share of HEAD TO HEAD battles with these powerhouse programs, as opposed to burning a ton of time/energy/resources courting these kids, only to end up being always the bridesmaid but never the bride.
Again, I know this is the exact strategy many were either actively hoping for or at least anticipating. But until we land that first DUDE, (or I suppose, until the strategy fails but JH25 demonstrates that he can develop his emergency fall back guys really well like JB), it's going to be tough sledding for my own anxieties on the MBB recruiting front.
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