It's unreal how things came together so quickly.
Flash back to say late June. Isaiah Barnes was a surprise, out-of-the-blue commitment and a nice way to start the class. Before he committed, we had lost out on Pierre Brooks to MSU - not a huge loss in my view, but we were nonetheless off to a slow start, with MSU rumored to have the lead for Jaden Akins too (which turned out to be true).
Next, Will Tschetter and Kobe Bufkin commit in early July. Those were nice gets, but we still needed a point guard. We thought we had a great shot with Jalen Warley. We missed on him, then missed with Angelo Brizzi and Jaden Akins (anticipated, of course, but we still needed a PG). This was after not getting Khristian Lander last year. Things were getting a little desperate until we landed Frankie Collins in August.
Now, two five star kids in literally 10 days, with Houstan and Diabate. Wow!
First of all, this is an amazing collection of talent between 2020 and 2021. We have six top 100 guys, two just outside the top 100 (Williams, Barnes), and Tschetter at 147.
Second, I would imagine that once you land a couple five star kids like this, it's going to raise your recruiting profile for the next class. A couple months ago, we were talking about Dug McDaniel (#46) as a likely PG target in the 2022 class; now the conversation has focused on Jaden Bradley (#6).
Similarly, we've seen Michigan mentioned from time-to-time with Jarace Walker of IMG (#12), AJ Casey (PF, #20 overall), and Eric Dailey, Jr. of IMG (#32). I'll be curious to see if we continue to recruit guys like Dug McDaniel (#46), Colin Smith (#59 - I hope so, I really like this guy), Ty Rodgers (#75), Javaughn Hannah (#103), and Fletcher Loyer (#135). I imagine we have raised our profile enough that some of these lower ranked guys will become pure fall-back options, and of course Jett Howard will be part of the 2022 class too.
There is, of course, plenty of work to be done. Now we have to coach these kids up and find enough playing time to keep everyone relatively happy, which won't necessarily be easy.
But I do like the fact that although we have at least one one-and-done kid (Diabate), and probably a two-and-done in Houstan, we're mixing in a lot of guys who will likely stay more than two years, and some developmental guys with upside like Tschetter, Williams and Barnes. Those guys may not star as freshmen or even sophomores but I'll bet by their third and (presumably) fourth years, they'll be valuable to this team.
I'm really happy to see things working out so well for Juwan, and for us as fans.
And while it's probably still unlikely that Emoni Bates ever suits up for MSU, I wonder if they would end up with the #1 class if he reclassified? Probably. It would be pretty wild if Michigan and MSU were ranked 1-2, though of course I'd prefer to hold on to that #1 ranking.
And the UM/MSU rivalry? Wow. Could really be something by next year and 2022/23. The Spartans are also doing an incredible job of recruiting. The rivalry has been pretty intense in recent years (2011-2014, and again 2017-now). It could really take off again with the talent coming to both schools.
Flash back to say late June. Isaiah Barnes was a surprise, out-of-the-blue commitment and a nice way to start the class. Before he committed, we had lost out on Pierre Brooks to MSU - not a huge loss in my view, but we were nonetheless off to a slow start, with MSU rumored to have the lead for Jaden Akins too (which turned out to be true).
Next, Will Tschetter and Kobe Bufkin commit in early July. Those were nice gets, but we still needed a point guard. We thought we had a great shot with Jalen Warley. We missed on him, then missed with Angelo Brizzi and Jaden Akins (anticipated, of course, but we still needed a PG). This was after not getting Khristian Lander last year. Things were getting a little desperate until we landed Frankie Collins in August.
Now, two five star kids in literally 10 days, with Houstan and Diabate. Wow!
First of all, this is an amazing collection of talent between 2020 and 2021. We have six top 100 guys, two just outside the top 100 (Williams, Barnes), and Tschetter at 147.
Second, I would imagine that once you land a couple five star kids like this, it's going to raise your recruiting profile for the next class. A couple months ago, we were talking about Dug McDaniel (#46) as a likely PG target in the 2022 class; now the conversation has focused on Jaden Bradley (#6).
Similarly, we've seen Michigan mentioned from time-to-time with Jarace Walker of IMG (#12), AJ Casey (PF, #20 overall), and Eric Dailey, Jr. of IMG (#32). I'll be curious to see if we continue to recruit guys like Dug McDaniel (#46), Colin Smith (#59 - I hope so, I really like this guy), Ty Rodgers (#75), Javaughn Hannah (#103), and Fletcher Loyer (#135). I imagine we have raised our profile enough that some of these lower ranked guys will become pure fall-back options, and of course Jett Howard will be part of the 2022 class too.
There is, of course, plenty of work to be done. Now we have to coach these kids up and find enough playing time to keep everyone relatively happy, which won't necessarily be easy.
But I do like the fact that although we have at least one one-and-done kid (Diabate), and probably a two-and-done in Houstan, we're mixing in a lot of guys who will likely stay more than two years, and some developmental guys with upside like Tschetter, Williams and Barnes. Those guys may not star as freshmen or even sophomores but I'll bet by their third and (presumably) fourth years, they'll be valuable to this team.
I'm really happy to see things working out so well for Juwan, and for us as fans.
And while it's probably still unlikely that Emoni Bates ever suits up for MSU, I wonder if they would end up with the #1 class if he reclassified? Probably. It would be pretty wild if Michigan and MSU were ranked 1-2, though of course I'd prefer to hold on to that #1 ranking.
And the UM/MSU rivalry? Wow. Could really be something by next year and 2022/23. The Spartans are also doing an incredible job of recruiting. The rivalry has been pretty intense in recent years (2011-2014, and again 2017-now). It could really take off again with the talent coming to both schools.
