Tuesday Hoops Recruiting + Team Nuggets
With the early signing period only three weeks away, it's closing time for a select few prospects, while a new name has also surfaced. The uncertainty of stay/go decisions on the horizon after the 2022-23 season in tandem with the portal means the net is a bit smaller in relation to the past for HS recruiting. Let's take a look at where we stand.
GUARDS
Isaiah Collier
Height/Weight: Listed height in the 6'2 - 6'4 range, with listed weight ranging between 170 - 205. Eye test says he's probably a legit 6'2 and 190-195.
High School/AAU: Marietta Wheeler HS (GA)/Nike EYBL The Skill Factory (GA)
Mainstream Ranking: Now a consensus top-6 overall prospect
EM Ranking/Projected Impact: 5-star/#8 overall. Expected projection/production of a true 5-star prospect, even if it isn't necessarily what is expected of a consensus top-10 prospect as a freshman. Think consistent rotation player that plays 15-20 minutes per game at minimum, with the potential to be a starter by the time February/March comes around. Has positional size/frame that NBA covets, but lacks the desired twitchiness/acceleration and has some unnecessary motion on the shot mechanics that may give GMs some pause. Will likely be all-conference level player in year two if he sticks around in college.
Latest Recruiting Intel: Collier has set a November 16th decision date with USC, UCLA and Cincinnati the finalists competing with the Wolverines. This one doesn't seem to be trending Michigan's way, as Isaiah has not consistently communicated with the staff in recent weeks. High School and AAU teammate Arrinten Page committed to USC last week, adding fuel to the fire that the Trojans are in pole position here. Cincinnati added a pledge from 4-star PG Jizzle James a few weeks ago and Bearcat insiders I've spoken with this week now believe USC is the landing spot. With 5/6 FutureCast predictions and the lone Crystal Ball in favor of the Trojans in tandem with my intel above, it seems Michigan's top overall prospect is indeed headed to Los Angeles.
George Washington III
Height/Weight: Listed at 6'2 and in the 165-175 range. Likely 6'1 - 6'2 and 180 based on my eye test.
High School/AAU: Chaminade-Julienne HS (OH)/Nike EYBL All-Ohio (OH)
Mainstream Ranking: 4-star/60-135 range overall
EM Rankings/Evaluation: 3-star/#121 overall. Above-average/good volume perimeter shooter with outstanding shot mechanics. Averaged over 5 attempts per game from distance during all five EYBL sessions. Aggregate percentage is around 33%, but that isn't really indicative of the shooter he is because it doesn't account for shot difficulty. Washington can knock down jumpers off movement via pull-ups and screens from both distance and midrange. He's an average secondary ballhandler, but not a kid that is going to run ballscreens with any sort of volume. Physically, he's a tad undersized for the SG spot and is only an average athlete. Not likely to be an instant-impact player, but can provide valuable floorspacing while sticking around four years. A bit reminiscent of some Beilein-era targets.
Latest Recruiting Intel: Visited Michigan a few weekends ago and gave standard fluff in the aftermath. 247 reports that Michigan, Wake Forest and Louisville are the top tier of a final five that also includes Virginia and Dayton. Washington is originally from Louisville, so my opinion is the Cardinals are in strong position here if they turn up the heat. As of yesterday, George told me he has yet to lock-in a visit with Louisville, but that could change at any moment. I'd be remiss not to mention his father is on staff with the Dayton WBB team, so the Flyers are looming as well. Washington will take an official visit to Wake Forest commencing October 27th and plans to make a decision during the early signing period. Whether a Louisville visit materializes is the key component to monitor here.
[Hit THE JUMP for the full rundown + more]
A NEW WING
Alex Toohey
Height/Weight: Listed at 6'7 and 205 pounds
High School/AAU: NBA Global Academy
Mainstream Ranking: N/A
EM Ranking/Evaluation: I have yet to see Toohey play live, or even a full game via film, so take the following with a heavy grain of salt. Based on the limited film I've seen, it's probably fair to say Alex is a limited athlete in terms of agility. But he does have solid positional size in tandem with some perimeter shotmaking ability. In particular, Toohey flashes the ability to hit triples off movement via screens and pull-ups. The handle is very basic, as he is extremely right-hand dominant and can't really change direction much with a live dribble. To compensate for the lack of on-ball ability off the bounce, Alex looks to have some back-to-the-basket chops and is comfortable operating in the paint/elbow areas. He's a bit reminiscent of some Wisconsin-esque players that aren't necessarily athletic shot-creators, but moreso a good shooter that creates mismatches at times because of his ability to score on the block. Averaged 13.5ppg, 5.3reb, 2.6ast on 43.8% from distance (limited volume, only 2.5 attempts per game) in 13 games on the Australian NBL1 league.
Latest Recruiting Intel: Set to visit Ann Arbor October 20th. Will also make OVs to Davidson, Villanova and Gonzaga. As this is a foreign prospect, information is scant and the visits are likely to go a long way in determining the school of choice. Juwan Howard is generally regarded as one of the best visit hosts in the country, so getting him to campus is big. Stay tuned.
BIGS
Papa Kante
Height/Weight: Listed at 6'10 and 225 pounds. Probably closer to a legit 6'8.5 - 6'9 and 215 - 220lbs.
High School/AAU: South Kent School (CT)/Nike EYBL New York Renaissance (NY)
Mainstream Ranking: 4-star/30-100 overall.
EM Ranking/Evaluation: 4-star/#48 overall. Expected projection/production more closely aligns with that of a prospect ranked in the 50-70 range. Impact defender that is a switchable big with good agility and defensive instincts on rotations, while being surprisingly disciplined on shot-fakes, etc. Burgeoning offensive skill and getting more comfortable and accurate as a perimeter shooter in recent months. Some potential as a face-up option from the elbows. Still a bit of a tweener that may not be big enough to defend the true mammoths of the B10. Will need development offensively. Multi-year college player that isn't likely to make big impact as a freshman.
Latest Recruiting Intel: Made second official visit to Michigan over the weekend. Other finalists in the final five include Maryland, Pittsburg, Rutgers and Memphis. A second visit in four months definitely provides a bit more optimism, with Sam Webb placing crystal ball in favor of the Wolverines along with three Futurecast predicitions from Rivals. On my end, I'm told Papa has yet to give Michigan a verbal pledge in the visit aftermath. But its fairly obvious there is serious mutual interest at minimum given visits resources are limited for both parties. This has been a somewhat bizarre recruitment, with a few twists and turns in the last 3 months. I'm still holding on to my hypothetical low-confidence crystal for Michigan, but still leery of a last-second Memphis offer. This one should be coming to a close within three weeks, as the early signing period opens November 9th.
Baye Ndongo
Height/Weight: Listed at 6'8 - 6'10 and 220 pounds. I was able to see Ndongo live in March and my eyes say 6'8 and 215 seems about right.
High School/AAU: Colorado Prep (CO)/Only Played AAU from a few weekends with Adidas Utah Prospects
Mainstream Ranking: 3-star/#37 PF to 247. Not ranked elsewhere.
EM Rankings/Evaluation: Would fall in the 75-125 range for my rankings. A good athlete that can handle the ball a bit and has some impressive flashes as a passer/playmaker. May project as a switchable defender, but tends to gamble on defense and needs some development on that end of the court in terms of discipline/decision-making/process. Baye best projects as a face-up big with good athleticism, in the mold of a poor man's version of Moussa Diabate. He's a bit smaller and less athletic than Moussa though, and is likely to be a multi-year college player.
Recruitment: I'm told the Wolverines may still pursue Ndongo as a second big in the 2023 class even if Papa Kante ends up in the class. Took official visit to Colorado in September. The Buffaloes appear to be the top competition, as that was his second visit to Colorado in 2022. Also picked up an offer from Nebraska two weeks ago, so he's starting to go from relative unknown to late riser. Baye tells me that he has yet to lock-in any official visits as of late last week, so this recruitment is still in the infancy stages for the most part. If the Wolverines push for a visit, then this is one to monitor.
2024 Visits
Dylan Harper
One of the most coveted prospects in the junior class, 5-star guard Dylan Harper will make his way to Ann Arbor during the weekend of October 29th. Son of former NBA guard Ron Harper and brother of former Rutgers standout Ron Harper Jr, Rutgers obviously has ties here. But......we're talking Rutgers, so getting an early visit and putting on the full-court press seems good.
Caleb Williams
The Michigan staff thinks of the DMV wing as one of the most undervalued prospects in the junior class. Williams is easily a top-50 level prospect from their perspective. Caleb will also be on campus the weekend of October 29th.
TEAM BONUS BITS
- Offense is ahead of the defense in practice so far, so the focal point been slanted a bit toward defense of late
- Ballscreen defense has been a specific area of emphasis, and the coaching staff is once again looking to implement more aggressive coverages with blitz/show + recover approaches
- Hunter Dickinson and Terrance Williams appear to be the leaders of the team and are holding teammates accountable in practice and pushing everyone to be the best versions of themselves.
- Expect Dug McDaniel to be part of the consistent rotation once the games start to count. The staff has been impressed with him in practice and "there's no soft in him".
- Joey Baker is fully cleared and healthy. Appears to be the best pure shooter on the team.
- Movement shooting off screens and PnP has been a focal point offensively in practice.
- There's still an adjustment period for promising freshman Youssouf Khayat. He's looked good as a floorspacing shooter, but needs to get the playbook down and adjust to a different style of play.
- Gregg Glenn has been taking practice reps with the bigs in addition to the wings.
October 18th, 2022 at 11:09 AM ^
Jizzle James
October 18th, 2022 at 11:50 AM ^
He's got quite a shot
October 18th, 2022 at 5:00 PM ^
I had always heard he was less of a shooter and more of a dribbler.
October 19th, 2022 at 1:00 AM ^
Either his parents named him Jizzle, or he willingly goes by that as a nickname. Not sure which is more funny.
October 19th, 2022 at 9:23 AM ^
That's not all. You can google Dylan Harper at work but don't spell it Dillon Harper
October 18th, 2022 at 11:11 AM ^
When MattEM last posted one of these, I posited that Michigan could be more likely to get a commitment from Collier than Kante. My hypothesis came from the common perception that a prospect who does not commit to their long-presumed favorite is likely hunting for a "better" option. Thus, Collier was looking for a reason not to commit to USC and Kante was looking for a reason not to commit to Michigan.
I'm glad no one takes my musings seriously because that take seems to have aged...poorly.
October 18th, 2022 at 11:30 AM ^
Eh, who can ever make sense out of recruiting? Top OL and RB should be knocking down the door for UM football right now, instead they are heading to ...Notre Dame? MSU? PSU?
That written, have to admit, I bought into your position after that last article as well.
October 18th, 2022 at 11:25 AM ^
Basketball and football recruiting are just so weird to me right now. I can't think of a program that has it more together than us in the two main sports and is struggling landing recruits this cycle. I know football went through some staff changes but it is just odd to me. I know it is easy to blame everything on NIL but I still find it surprising. We don't even have a basketball commit at this point. We had a lot of roster turnover. It seems as if kids would see a good opportunity to get on the court.
October 18th, 2022 at 11:44 AM ^
I think NIL is a huge factor. When you have players getting promised the world, while Michigan has to pitch the experience, it's hard not to look at all the glitter.
October 18th, 2022 at 12:10 PM ^
Can you provide better on-court results than Michigan? "No"
Have you developed and sent more guys to the NBA than Michigan? "No"
Will I receive a better education than Michigan? "No"
If I have a career ending injury, can you provide support like Michigan? "No"
Outside of all that, can you hook me up with a couple hundred thousand? "Yes"
Where do I sign?
October 18th, 2022 at 1:07 PM ^
We were all young and short-sighted once. When you're 18, you're invincible and only need to worry about now. That's why the Michigan approach doesn't seem as good as the opponents. You can show all these things that will help them out over the long run, but most of us at 18 are only interested in the immediate future. There is a plus side to the Michigan approach, you do get more players that are mature beyond their age and see the big picture and why I think you see Michigan outperform their recruiting rankings. But, I also feel that gives Michigan a lower ceiling than the elites.
October 18th, 2022 at 1:32 PM ^
I would agree with that. However there should be adults in the room looking out for the 18 year old who see the big picture as well. Unfortunately, a lot of these adults (Emoni Bates for starters) only care about how can they get their piece of the pie and don't care about the long run either.
October 19th, 2022 at 1:12 AM ^
A lot of people also come from limited means, and could use money now for their families as opposed to *maybe* a better shot at more money later.
October 18th, 2022 at 12:09 PM ^
NIL is the obvious reason. People like money. For many people, the more you can get and the sooner you can get it often outweigh other variables.
Michigan started slowly with NIL.
Here's one example.
Here's Michigan's Athletics website today:
Here's DIII Wittenberg University's Athletics website:
I'm not saying Michigan doesn't have a good NIL program. I think they do. I also think they handle it differently than a lot of other schools. This typically means Michigan will be focusing on a smaller segment of recruits. The upside is those recruits will most likely thrive at Michigan whether it be for 1 year or 4.
October 18th, 2022 at 1:57 PM ^
It is easy to shout "NIL" at this recruiting cycle and there's no doubt some truth to that. But there are several other factors at play. Collier has ties to the LA area, for example.
Additionally, our roster is quite full for next year already and we aren't sure which spots other than Joey Baker's will open up. It is easy for us to look at the roster and say we should be getting top-50 guards lining up at our door....but we also know that we have two young players projected to be here and have signed three transfers in a row.
Just as important is that there is still a level of recruit that the blue bloods are more likely to get than we are - for many reasons. Jackson going to Kansas for example. High going to UNC for example. Collier might be weird with the USC/Cincy situation, but otherwise these factors are relevant.
October 18th, 2022 at 11:39 AM ^
Kante's recruitment is starting to feel like one of those recruitments where we lead for months but he never pulls the trigger then inevitably goes elsewhere
October 18th, 2022 at 11:47 AM ^
I'm just happy I was able to figure out PnP without having to look it up.
October 18th, 2022 at 12:00 PM ^
It is pretty sad at the landscape of recruiting these days when the football team is 19-2 in the last two years, while the basketball team has been to 5 straight sweet 16s and are fighting mediocre programs for recruits. You can't argue against developing to NFL/NBA, education, alumni support or on-field/court results. So its really the simple fact Michigan doesn't play NIL the ONLY thing that is in the way? That's nuts.
October 18th, 2022 at 12:20 PM ^
Will try to consolidate my thoughts to questions/comments here.
Can only speak intelligently with respect to BB recruiting, but two factors at play here for the slow start for 2023 recruiting:
A) Michigan is loaded with underclassmen at every single position, so its simply hard to objectively sell early PT, absent a given prospect being an instant-impact OAD type. Particularly when Michigan has been reeling-in top 100 level talent at every spot
B) Michigan operates much more like a traditional college program, whereas the competition operates much more like a professional team on the college-pro spectrum. Functionally, a lot of teams are offering signing bonuses, which the Michigan administration simply isn't going to dabble in. So realistically, Michigan's NIL pitch is "come to Ann Arbor, and we think we can match any other institution in terms of NIL, however you have to wait for a year+ to see any hard cash". As the saying goes, "money talks and BS walks". Kids simply aren't enamored with the college route any more. They want to be pros that get paid.
October 18th, 2022 at 1:20 PM ^
I think B has far more impact than A when considering how most of us are at 18. The immediate outweighs the long term for most 18 year olds. I think that does mean the players Michigan gets tend to be more mature for their age, hence outperforming their recruiting rankings, but the ceiling is also lower than the elite teams.
October 18th, 2022 at 12:24 PM ^
These two things --
- Hunter Dickinson and Terrance Williams appear to be the leaders of the team and are holding teammates accountable in practice and pushing everyone to be the best versions of themselves.
- Expect Dug McDaniel to be part of the consistent rotation once the games start to count. The staff has been impressed with him in practice and "there's no soft in him".
-- make me excited for this team. Not as excited as I'd be if Jizzle James was on our recruiting radar, but excited.
October 18th, 2022 at 1:28 PM ^
I'm also pleased to hear about Dug, though I'm more relieved than excited since he's the only primary ball handler on the team besides Llewellyn. Loved his tape though, hope it transfers to the league (and soon!
October 18th, 2022 at 12:41 PM ^
Michigan is basically in it for Pape Kante (who could easily flip to Memphis) and an unknown wing from Australia.
I know Michigan uses the portal to find point guards and has recruited wing through center really well, but you have to have someone who can play the off guard position both ways.
The current roster has Kobe who can fill that role and that's it.
It's not like Michigan isn't trying to recruit this role. Isaiah Collier would have fit that role this year. There was the guy from Milwaukee who chose UNC last year. The guy who went to Arizona State the year before that.
How can you recruit for this position but then not sign anyone when you lose out on your plan A or B?
I know MattEM has talked about positionless basketball a lot in his responses to posts, but I just don't see a team with a short point guard, three wings, and a center being successful against teams with legit guard talent. There are too many matchups which can be exploited on either end of the court.
October 18th, 2022 at 12:48 PM ^
But this year's team doesn't really have a short PG. Llewellyn is 6'1 - 6'2 and should be an upgrade over both Mike Smith and DeVante Jones.
And Collier doesn't fit the role of an off-ball guard. He's absolutely a ball dominant PG that creates offense for teammates.
Kobe/Jett are being used interchangably as 2/3s. So if you have depth concerns about that particular position, I do think that is reasonable.
I'll say it again though, I just don't concern myself with guard recruiting in the portal era. Rotational Guys under 6'5 are dime a dozen. We've done just that 3 years and counting and it's worked out well each time.
October 18th, 2022 at 1:32 PM ^
Chaundee Brown & Mike Smith were great gets through the portal and that team would not have been what they were without them.
D. Jones was not exactly a "worked out well" in my book. He had clear limitations at both ends of the court. There were multiple match-ups where he looked like a lower tier player trying to keep up with the big boys. That type of player puts a lower ceiling on the team.
October 18th, 2022 at 2:38 PM ^
Thanks for that catch. Fixed.
October 18th, 2022 at 3:45 PM ^
deleted
October 18th, 2022 at 4:14 PM ^
Im still reeling that we werent more heavily involved with Jizzle James recruitment.
October 18th, 2022 at 6:14 PM ^
Weird to act like Rutgers getting Dylan Harper is stretch. His brother is a legend there and he kinda grew up around Rutgers. It seems like the vibe in his recruitment is Rutgers or someone like Duke.
Hopefully we land Kante and get at least one of the top guys we were targeting. I like the idea of getting 2 bigs too since it'll just be Reed next year most likely.
October 19th, 2022 at 12:54 AM ^
When did he say it was a stretch? He simply implied, correctly, that a Rutger legacy is not unflippable.
October 19th, 2022 at 12:53 AM ^
I really don't understand how USC and Texas continue to pull elite recruits despite constant underperfoming. But it's better than them going the Duke/UNC/UK/KU route, I guess.
As always, love your contributions to this blog Matt.
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