Michigan Basketball: 4-star Henry Coleman puts Wolverines among top-5

Michigan basketball continues to make the top lists of elite recruits and another put UM in his top five Sunday night as Henry Coleman announced his finalists.

When it comes to the 2020 recruiting class, Juwan Howard and Michigan basketball have yet to land that key second commitment, but after being announced as a finalist for yet another four-star prospect, another candidate has emerged.

This recruit is four-star power forward Henry Coleman, who released his top-five list on Twitter Sunday night and included Michigan basketball along with others such as Duke, North Carolina State, Ohio State and Virginia Tech.

This is the second player in as many days as Lance Ware also put Michigan among his top-five over the weekend. Yet, the big difference is that right now, Ware has an official visit scheduled to Ann Arbor, while Coleman doesn’t.

Coleman is a 6-foot-6 power forward and he’s not necessarily the traditional kind of forward the Wolverines would recruit, but he has incredible athleticism and is tremendous at getting to the bucket.

When you watch his highlights, you will see Coleman throwing down a lot of dunks. He does a lot of his work out of the post and he does show a natural ability to find openings down low, plus a nice ability to finish.

He is on the short side at 6-foot-6 and that makes you wonder what kind of post player he could be in the Big Ten Conference. Certainly, he is athletic enough to wreak some havoc but he won’t be able to physically dominate as easily as he does now.

However, it may be a moot point for the Wolverines because, with Coleman, there is a lot of ground to make up. The Richmond, Virginia product that is ranked 39th overall in the 247 sports composite rankings and sixth among power forwards is leaning heavily towards Duke.

When you watch Coleman play, he sort of reminds of a poor man’s Zion Williamson. He’s not nearly the athlete or all-around talent that Williamson is obviously, but he can replicate some of the things he did.

That means Michigan will need to get Coleman in for a visit and use that an opportunity to close the gap. Unfortunately, the Wolverines find themselves in that position with a number of top recruits.

Coleman is the eighth prospect ranked in the top-50 to include the Wolverines in his most recent list of top teams, which is a good sign. But at the same time, UM isn’t the favorite for any of them.

That’s what needs to change. Ware seems like a good candidate since he has an official visit set and if a guy like Coleman were to come for an official to Ann Arbor, it would at least give Howard and the staff to change things with him too.