Michigan Basketball: Juwan Howard’s ideal 2020 recruiting class
Michigan basketball could sign up to five players in 2020 and more if anyone leaves early. So what Juwan does Howard’s ideal class look like? We take a shot.
When it comes to the 2020 recruiting class for college hoops, we are coming up on an important time and for Michigan basketball, that means making priorities and pushing to get players on campus for visits.
As we saw with Virginia and Jabri Abdur-Rahim earlier this week, that’s how you get it done and with the early signing period only four months away (Nov. 13-20), Michigan basketball needs to keep trying to play catch up and try to start closing with some key targets.
Obviously, with Juwan Howard being hired as the new head coach in May hurt. The timing just couldn’t have been any worse. It forced the Wolverines to lose Jalen Wilson and while Howard and the coaching staff did an incredible job getting Franz Wagner into the fold for 2019, the next few months will be absolutely critical for a securing a top class in 2020, which is vital.
Packed house. Head coaches from Kentucky, North Carolina, USC, Arizona, Virginia, Gonzaga, Texas, Michigan and Pitt all here for Why Not vs. Vegas Elite. Jalen Green, Josh Christopher, Devin Askew, Nimari Burnett, Addison Patterson, Jaden Hardy and Zaon Collins all playing. pic.twitter.com/kKHEWFUzOG
— Krysten Peek (@krystenpeek) July 12, 2019
A big selling point on Howard was that he was going to excel recruiting and so far, we haven’t seen anything to doubt that will be true. He already landed a top-50 prospect in Wagner and has caught the interest of a few five-star prospects that he has focused on early.
At one point, it looked like Michigan basketball might have five scholarships available for 2020, with one of those going to Zeb Jackson, the only commit in the class right now.
If Jackson ends up signing with Michigan and neither Wagner or Isaiah Livers end up leaving early, the Wolverines would have at least three scholarships left to offer. However, if Austin Davis, who probably won’t play much this season decided to leave as a graduate transfer, it could open up another spot.
That seems likely to happen unless he really just loves Michigan and doesn’t care much about playing time, because it doesn’t seem like he will ever get much if he stays in Ann Arbor.
For this exercise, we will assume Howard will be able to put together a five-man class in 2020, including Jackson and if that’s the case, here’s what the ideal group of signees could look like.