Michigan Wolverines basketball coach Juwan Howard and his staff will enter the 2020-21 season (if there is one) minus a five-star most expected to be on the team.
Yes, including Howard and his staff. Per numerous sources, including a couple on staff, they were under the strong impression (to put it mildly) that five-star Californian Josh Christopher was in the fold, and there had been nothing but confirmation lately. That undoubtedly played a part in the decision to make room by asking Howard’s son, three-star Jace, to walk on.
“Wild,” one of our sources closest to it (and affected by it) said last night after they got the rug pulled out from under them. “This hurts.”
As anyone who’s been here knows, we’re more skeptical than most when it comes to basketball recruiting, and we don’t create false hope when we can help it. The list of five- and four-stars we’ve said over the years isn’t coming when most believed they were is pretty long — Jaylen Brown (Cal), Casey Prather (Florida), more recently Nimari Burnett (Texas Tech) to name a few … and yes, we’re still wary on five-star “committed as of now” Isaiah Todd.
We were even skeptical on Mitch McGary until the very end, and frankly, so was one of the people on staff instrumental in his recruitment.
“We only got him because he was Glenn (Robinson III’s) boy,” he said a couple years after the fact.
And he was right. McGary’s parents were apparently pushing hard for Duke after Coach K. did his “I really wanna coach you” crying routine in front of his trophy case. McGary’s his own guy (as we’ve learned), and they landed him.
It’s one of the reasons former head coach John Beilein once used the term “wild goose chase” when one of his assistants suggested they shoot for a few more of the elite players … you know, the kind former Fab Fiver Jalen Rose insisted Howard would land once they got rid of Beilein.
Well, it’s not that easy. You can do everything right, as Howard and his staff did in this one, and still get burned in the end. In no way do we blame the coaches. For one, they already have their “Plan B” in Zeb Jackson, and while he’s not Christopher, he’ll be here longer. The fact that he was a Beilein “Plan A,” too, should make you feel pretty good, unless you’re one who believes Howard needs the elite recruits to win.
The jury’s still out, but Howard alleviated some of those concerns in his first year. We’ll find out how much of it was being a well-oiled machine with a veteran team and senior leaders like Zavier Simpson running the show. It wasn’t perfect, but there were a couple stretches during the year, especially, when this looked like a well-coached team, keeping in mind it was Howard’s first year as a head coach.
As for Christopher — we were confident based on all the evidence, which was very strong. We couldn’t fathom going this long and then pulling the rug out from under Howard and Co., even when Rivals.com analyst Eric Bossi warned us the night before this is the type of kid where you just don’t know.
As we wrote during the day yesterday, Bossi expressed as much on the Arizona State message board. That prompted us to post this Keita Bates-Diop recollection, the point being that even when it seems like a lock, you just never know.
At 6:00 p.m., however, we got a call from a colleague that family members had given him quotes for his “Michigan commitment story," and told you as much. Christopher had told a Rivals.com staffer earlier in the day he planned to make his announcement at 3 P.M. (his time), so we said in the same thread a decision could come at any time.
It didn’t, of course. He strung everyone along until nearly midnight Eastern Time and then dropped the bomb that he committed to Arizona State. Even The Athletic’s Brendan Quinn tweeted he had his 2,000-word story ready to go.
Make no mistake — on paper, this seems to change everything next year. It appears the Wolverines are still lacking a playmaker at shooting guard, though as our Tobie Smith noted, sometimes teams surprise. Maybe this group exceeds expectations and comes together to do something special.
Christopher was going to be a one-and-done, and it could have been fun to see what he did in Ann Arbor. We haven’t seen that kind of elite talent at that position in a long, long time.
But keep in mind, ASU coach Bobby Hurley and his staff didn’t find out Christopher was coming until he posted his video … the kid wanted to shock people, and he apparently did it by leading everyone to believe he was going to do one thing before changing direction.
He did that at Howard’s expense.
What will be most interesting now is to see if this changes Howard’s recruiting strategy, especially if Todd pulls the other end of the rug out later this week for a second thud, as some expect.
So we’ll chalk this one up to a learning experience, like Ralphie in A Christmas Story with his Little Orphan Annie decoder pin in which the ‘secret message’ was to drink his Ovaltine.
We (us and Howard) head out to face the basketball recruiting world again, wiser.
Yes, including Howard and his staff. Per numerous sources, including a couple on staff, they were under the strong impression (to put it mildly) that five-star Californian Josh Christopher was in the fold, and there had been nothing but confirmation lately. That undoubtedly played a part in the decision to make room by asking Howard’s son, three-star Jace, to walk on.
“Wild,” one of our sources closest to it (and affected by it) said last night after they got the rug pulled out from under them. “This hurts.”
As anyone who’s been here knows, we’re more skeptical than most when it comes to basketball recruiting, and we don’t create false hope when we can help it. The list of five- and four-stars we’ve said over the years isn’t coming when most believed they were is pretty long — Jaylen Brown (Cal), Casey Prather (Florida), more recently Nimari Burnett (Texas Tech) to name a few … and yes, we’re still wary on five-star “committed as of now” Isaiah Todd.
We were even skeptical on Mitch McGary until the very end, and frankly, so was one of the people on staff instrumental in his recruitment.
“We only got him because he was Glenn (Robinson III’s) boy,” he said a couple years after the fact.
And he was right. McGary’s parents were apparently pushing hard for Duke after Coach K. did his “I really wanna coach you” crying routine in front of his trophy case. McGary’s his own guy (as we’ve learned), and they landed him.
It’s one of the reasons former head coach John Beilein once used the term “wild goose chase” when one of his assistants suggested they shoot for a few more of the elite players … you know, the kind former Fab Fiver Jalen Rose insisted Howard would land once they got rid of Beilein.
Well, it’s not that easy. You can do everything right, as Howard and his staff did in this one, and still get burned in the end. In no way do we blame the coaches. For one, they already have their “Plan B” in Zeb Jackson, and while he’s not Christopher, he’ll be here longer. The fact that he was a Beilein “Plan A,” too, should make you feel pretty good, unless you’re one who believes Howard needs the elite recruits to win.
The jury’s still out, but Howard alleviated some of those concerns in his first year. We’ll find out how much of it was being a well-oiled machine with a veteran team and senior leaders like Zavier Simpson running the show. It wasn’t perfect, but there were a couple stretches during the year, especially, when this looked like a well-coached team, keeping in mind it was Howard’s first year as a head coach.
As for Christopher — we were confident based on all the evidence, which was very strong. We couldn’t fathom going this long and then pulling the rug out from under Howard and Co., even when Rivals.com analyst Eric Bossi warned us the night before this is the type of kid where you just don’t know.
As we wrote during the day yesterday, Bossi expressed as much on the Arizona State message board. That prompted us to post this Keita Bates-Diop recollection, the point being that even when it seems like a lock, you just never know.
At 6:00 p.m., however, we got a call from a colleague that family members had given him quotes for his “Michigan commitment story," and told you as much. Christopher had told a Rivals.com staffer earlier in the day he planned to make his announcement at 3 P.M. (his time), so we said in the same thread a decision could come at any time.
It didn’t, of course. He strung everyone along until nearly midnight Eastern Time and then dropped the bomb that he committed to Arizona State. Even The Athletic’s Brendan Quinn tweeted he had his 2,000-word story ready to go.
Make no mistake — on paper, this seems to change everything next year. It appears the Wolverines are still lacking a playmaker at shooting guard, though as our Tobie Smith noted, sometimes teams surprise. Maybe this group exceeds expectations and comes together to do something special.
Christopher was going to be a one-and-done, and it could have been fun to see what he did in Ann Arbor. We haven’t seen that kind of elite talent at that position in a long, long time.
But keep in mind, ASU coach Bobby Hurley and his staff didn’t find out Christopher was coming until he posted his video … the kid wanted to shock people, and he apparently did it by leading everyone to believe he was going to do one thing before changing direction.
He did that at Howard’s expense.
What will be most interesting now is to see if this changes Howard’s recruiting strategy, especially if Todd pulls the other end of the rug out later this week for a second thud, as some expect.
So we’ll chalk this one up to a learning experience, like Ralphie in A Christmas Story with his Little Orphan Annie decoder pin in which the ‘secret message’ was to drink his Ovaltine.
We (us and Howard) head out to face the basketball recruiting world again, wiser.
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