Michigan Basketball: Juwan Howard had a busy weekend recruiting

New Michigan basketball coach Juwan Howard has been hitting the recruiting trail hard and here is a look at some of the offers and visits taking place.

If you are going to be a successful head coach in college basketball, you have to be relentless when it comes to recruiting and so far Juwan Howard is proving to be exactly that for Michigan basketball.

Howard, who was introduced as the head coach of the Wolverines just 10 days ago, has been working hard recruiting. His first move was re-affirming the commitment of Cole Bajema who signed with Michigan basketball in the early signing period for the 2019 class.

Howard also contacted former signee Jalen Wilson and it was expected that he would visit for the four-star prospect from Denton, Texas. Yet, that visit hasn’t happened yet but Wilson is set to make his decision Wednesday.

That doesn’t seem like a great sign for the Wolverines, but rest assured, Howard has been in contact with a number of 2020 players and even hosted a four-star center from 2021.

While Howard’s first offer this week went out to Joshua Christopher and then another went to 2020 four-star Jabri Abdur-Rahim, a target the other staff was looking at closely too.

But Howard hasn’t stopped there and for the most part, he is hunting five-star prospects, although his last two offers went to five-stars that John Beilein was after too. One of those is five-star big man Walker Kessler, the third-ranked center in 2020. The recruitment of the previous staff, especially with Saddi Washington back could help. The re-offer to Kessler is via stock risers.

Another five-star that Beilein offered was Nimari Burnett, a product originally from Chicago. Burnett has been playing out of the country, but according to Endless Motor Sports, Howard has been in touch with him and is expected to re-affirm Michigan basketball’s offer soon.

Burnett makes a lot of sense because of Howard’s ties to Chicago and his previous interest in Michigan. However, the list of prospects UM has been working on doesn’t stop there and over the weekend, as reported by the Michigan Insider, Bretner Mutombo visited Ann Arbor.

Mutombo is no relation for the former NBA star Dikembe Mutombo, yet the 6-foot-10 center is the No. 72 prospect in the 2021 class and the 11th-ranked center. He’s raw and extremely athletic. Howard could sell him on the way he developed Hassan Whiteside with the Miami Heat.

One thing in Michigan’s favor is that his guardian is a graduate of UM. Some of the other teams in contention according to 247 sports are Florida, Georgia, Auburn and Clemson.