Michigan Basketball: Recruiting expert projects Lance Ware to Wolverines

Michigan basketball fans are waiting for the team to land a big-time commitment in 2020 but one expert believes four-star Lance Ware could commit to UM.

Under the direction of new head coach Juwan Howard, Michigan basketball finds itself competing for at least eight top-50 recruits in 2020. While the Wolverines aren’t the favorite as of yet with any of the eight, each of those players included UM on their most recent list.

Some players, like Nimari Burnett, who put Michigan basketball on his top-12 list, is going to shrink his recruitment down even further as he narrows his list to five soon. If the Wolverines make that one, he could be another viable option just as Lance Ware is becoming one.

Ware was already started to look like a more realistic possibility when he announced that Michigan was among his top-five teams over the weekend. He also announced an official visit to Ann Arbor in early September, which is also significant.

Of all these players that have put Michigan among their top five or whatever, few have set up an official visit. Walker Kessler visited when John Beilein was the head coach. But Ware will be the first of these eight top-50 recruits to visit outside of that.

And it appears that visit has also helped give college basketball recruiting expert, Dain Ervin, the motivation to put in a crystal ball for the Wolverines at 247 sports. It is now the sixth crystal ball for Ware and the previous five all went to Kentucky.

Yet, the Wildcats were the only team that Ware left off of his visit schedule, which also included trips to Miami, Virginia Tech and Ohio State. With the other teams in contention and the fact that Ware, a 6-foot-9 power forward, would likely take an interest in playing for Howard, an NBA power forward for 19 years, seems to have made this a two-horse race.

Some might not consider Michigan basketball a blue blood, at least not in the same way as Kentucky but it’s clear that highly-rated players are interested in the Wolverines, including Ware who is ranked 47th overall and seventh among power forwards.

To be fair, Ervin did project Jabri Abdur-Rahim to the Wolverines and he was wrong on that prediction as the four-star committed to Virginia last month, so his crystal ball isn’t a lock. Yet, he has gotten 73 percent of his crystal balls right this year and has a 67-percent success rate overall.

We will see if he’s right this time, but one thing seems clear: Michigan is in the hunt for Lance Ware. It’s now a matter of trying to seal the deal in September.