MBB Recruiting: '18 3* wing Justin Ahrens (w/Crystal Ball prediction)
Former Ohio St commit Justin Ahrens was offered this weekend by Beilein. The 6'5" wing has a handful of offers, notable ones coming from Purdue, Ohio St, and Xavier. He's the brother of underwhelming wing and former Michigan target Kyle Ahrens who currently plays for MSU. IIRC Beilein cooled on both Ahrens and Matt McQuaid and didn't end up offering either.
Jerry Meyer at 247 dusted off his Michigan Crystal Ball to put a prediction in favor of Michigan today.
Is Ahrens the "player to be named later" in the Dakich trade with OSU?
This thread is about to get rough !
Thinking we were going to get an incredible 18 class, to hoping Brezd comes, otherwise we are stuck in that middle 3* blah. I just don't get it, friendly offense, players set to graduate, legit 20+ wins a year, incredible facilities & most nba players in past 6 years -save KY, and Duke.
Matt D what's the deal?
Nothing against this kid, he looks like he can develop into a nice piece, but still not the top tier guy our program should be getting IMO. Any chance Archie is playing with bag $ down in Bloomington?
It's obvious to anyone who sees patterns that Izzo went to the "dark side" after his 20 point loss to Duke in the Final Four. After that game, he made a cryptic comment about how he was going to "do what it takes to win in today's game." Within a few months, he had two four stars and two five stars.
If Sparty basketball was a play, it would be called "The Bagman Cometh."
Basketball recruiting is all about off-court appeal and relationships because the vast majority of top-tier talent view themselves as one and done types or early entries. Total opposite of football where every prospect is mandated to stay a minimum of 3 years. From that standpoint, the recruitment of elite prospects on the hardwood isn't necessarily a decision that is made from a long-term perspective.
Michigan basketball lacks the hype machine that is Kentucky, Duke, UNC, etc. Our head coach is probably in the conversation for best developer in college basketball, but he doesn't maintain contact with recruits with the same frequency that his counterparts do and it hurts at times. That said, its hard to argue with his success. National Championship game, Elite 8 and Sweet 16 is extremely impressive over a 5 year span.
Without giving away too much, Coach Beilein knows he isn't the greatest recruiter in the world and has made some adjustments with his assistant coaching hires accordingly. Its no coincidence that Saddi Washington and DeAndre Haynes are now assistant coaches.
Saddi Washington has already proved instrumental on the recruiting front. He was the primary recruiter for Isaiah Livers, David DeJulius, Charles Matthews and Brandon Johns. Landing 4 four stars within a year is a pretty impressive accomplishment for your first year on the job.
I've known Coach Haynes for over 15 years (went to HS with his older brother) and I can guarantee you he helps with Detroit recruiting in particular.
In short, we're not likely to get many top 25 type prospects under Coach Beilein. That said, its very obvious to me that our recruiting profile has improved over the last 2 years. Jordan Poole, Isaiah Livers, Charles Matthews, David DeJulius, Brandon Johns are all 50-125 level talents. Prior to this we were recruiting primarily at a 100-150 level based on talent.
Lorenz also put in a CB for Michigan today.
Sign me up for that diasspointment of him leaving early a few years down the road!
You can point out recruits that didn't work out for every program in the country. Brundidge was also a four star. And im guessing that "Smote" is Evan Smotrycz.. who was also a four star recruit to everybody and a pretty solid player.
Beilein has developed more of these types of players into really useful pieces than he has had flops.
highest ranked recruits until the 2012 class or McGary, Stauskas and GRIII. It's all too common to remember the guys who didn't work out as reaches and forget they were ranked higher than stars like Trey and Hardaway.
This kid is really good. I live in the same county as him and have seen him play and have played against him. He won't be a freak star like you'll see at Duke or Kentucky, but Ahrens is the typical Beilein recruit: good kid, had worker, underestimated/overlooked, and has potential. I trust Beilein at this pont when searching for talent.
Good size for a 2/3 at a legit 6'5-6'6, decent verticality, above average/good shooter that lacks ability to create for himself or teammates off the dribble.
Justin is a volume scorer at this point in his development that needs a lot of shots in order to produce points. He's not likely to be a guy that is ever able to break a defense down off the dribble in isolation or off a ball screen. Not a guy you want as an on-ball defender on athletic perimeter players, though he's not adverse to a bit of physicality/contact.
He's probably my least favorite of the remaining offers. He's nowhere near the prospect in relation to Iggy, not near the same leve of shooter as Locke or Washington and lacks the athleticism and upside of a Hunter Tyson.
That's not to say that he's not an above average/good prospect (currently #140 in my 2018 rankings), but the others are more preferable in my opinion.
Highlights of Justin I put together from the Michigan Invitational in April.
http://endlessmotor.net/2017/04/04/justin-ahrens-18c2k-elite-2017-mi-in…
Why is Michigan targeting 2 PGs in this cycle? I understand we would have 3 PGs on the roster with X, Eli, and DeJulius. Locke would be fantastic because he is that good. I don't know much about Washington.
are both primarily shooting guards. Washington has a bit more ability to man the PG spot for brief moments, but does not possess the handle or speed to play point guard as a primary position. Locke certainly will not be a point guard.
I haven't personally watched him play but live in the same area. I actually work at the same company as his brother and was just talking to him recently about the OSU situation with the coaching change. I hadn't asked him anything about Michigan as he wasn't offered at that point and I just figured it was a moot point as he had been previously committed to OSU. I'll have to get the inside intel the next time I see his brother around the old water cooler.