Our own sane1 ran into assistant coach Luke Yaklich at the airport this weekend ... Yaklich shared the following on some of the freshmen:
"Regarding current players, he mentioned that Iggy and Johns have looked really good so far ... also mentioned that Nunez can really shoot the rock."
"Iggy" is five-star, 6-6 Canadian Ignas Brazdeikis of Mono (Ontario, Canada) Orangeville Prep, and Johns is four-star, 6-8 forward Brandon Johns of East Lansing (Mich.). Nunez is three-star, 6-5 wing Adrien Nunez of Oakdale (Conn.) St. Thomas More, a sleeper and sniper.
Here's what head coach John Beilein told us on each of these guys during an exclusive sit-down weeks back:
"Iggy is versatile," he said. "We think he can play really at three positions. We’ll see who best fits the two-guard position, but that’s a very real possibility to have a left handed two guard. But he can also play the three and the four. We will mix it up. “The way we’re playing right now, we have been changing our offense on the fly to fit what we want to do. We changed it last year and it really helped us. We’ll continue to change, and we still have a lot of stuff we can run, but we run it with more flow. It’s more position-less basketball than ever right now.
“I’ve seen Iggy shoot really well in practice. It’s a matter of time where I think his shooting will be hopefully just as good as his driving. He’s strong."
Beilein told us a story how he was watching a YouTube video someone sent to him of a kid tearing it up.
"I said to myself, 'we've got to recruit this kid,'" he recalled. "Then I put my glasses on and saw it was Iggy and said, 'oh. We've already got him.'"
Johns earned his offer by showing he was more than a shooter at the Michigan camp.
“Brandon, he’s certainly a guy who can play both forward positions, but we can also play small ball with him because he can really shoot," he said. "He rebounds the ball. He’s got a great chance. There’s a very high ceiling there, and his jumper is clean.
“Every one of these guys coming in can shoot it. I’ve got a video of Iggy making 60 out of 70 from three that he sent me. I can’t wait to coach these guys up.”
And on Nunez ... Beilein said they never saw him live before offering, taking a leap of faith the way they did with Caris LeVert, now with the Brooklyn Nets in the NBA playing himself into a huge contract.
"He has a jump shot he not only makes, but he can get his own jump shot because of his height," Beilein said. "A 6-2 kid like that does not get that scholarship, but a 6-5, 6-6 kid with a jump shot that is Tim Hardaway Jr.-like with a release that’s way up here does.
“He is a brilliant student, just was a perfect fit for a niche we were trying to get. Because of Duncan Robinson, so much of what we ran was where Duncan was on the floor. We’d run action where defenses couldn't help. Adrien will be in those same situations for a bit. He hasn’t been in a lot of ball screens, but here comes the process. At 6-6, if we can get him in ball screens and he sees over the top of it, he’ll be really good.”
"Regarding current players, he mentioned that Iggy and Johns have looked really good so far ... also mentioned that Nunez can really shoot the rock."
"Iggy" is five-star, 6-6 Canadian Ignas Brazdeikis of Mono (Ontario, Canada) Orangeville Prep, and Johns is four-star, 6-8 forward Brandon Johns of East Lansing (Mich.). Nunez is three-star, 6-5 wing Adrien Nunez of Oakdale (Conn.) St. Thomas More, a sleeper and sniper.
Here's what head coach John Beilein told us on each of these guys during an exclusive sit-down weeks back:
"Iggy is versatile," he said. "We think he can play really at three positions. We’ll see who best fits the two-guard position, but that’s a very real possibility to have a left handed two guard. But he can also play the three and the four. We will mix it up. “The way we’re playing right now, we have been changing our offense on the fly to fit what we want to do. We changed it last year and it really helped us. We’ll continue to change, and we still have a lot of stuff we can run, but we run it with more flow. It’s more position-less basketball than ever right now.
“I’ve seen Iggy shoot really well in practice. It’s a matter of time where I think his shooting will be hopefully just as good as his driving. He’s strong."
Beilein told us a story how he was watching a YouTube video someone sent to him of a kid tearing it up.
"I said to myself, 'we've got to recruit this kid,'" he recalled. "Then I put my glasses on and saw it was Iggy and said, 'oh. We've already got him.'"
Johns earned his offer by showing he was more than a shooter at the Michigan camp.
“Brandon, he’s certainly a guy who can play both forward positions, but we can also play small ball with him because he can really shoot," he said. "He rebounds the ball. He’s got a great chance. There’s a very high ceiling there, and his jumper is clean.
“Every one of these guys coming in can shoot it. I’ve got a video of Iggy making 60 out of 70 from three that he sent me. I can’t wait to coach these guys up.”
And on Nunez ... Beilein said they never saw him live before offering, taking a leap of faith the way they did with Caris LeVert, now with the Brooklyn Nets in the NBA playing himself into a huge contract.
"He has a jump shot he not only makes, but he can get his own jump shot because of his height," Beilein said. "A 6-2 kid like that does not get that scholarship, but a 6-5, 6-6 kid with a jump shot that is Tim Hardaway Jr.-like with a release that’s way up here does.
“He is a brilliant student, just was a perfect fit for a niche we were trying to get. Because of Duncan Robinson, so much of what we ran was where Duncan was on the floor. We’d run action where defenses couldn't help. Adrien will be in those same situations for a bit. He hasn’t been in a lot of ball screens, but here comes the process. At 6-6, if we can get him in ball screens and he sees over the top of it, he’ll be really good.”
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