Michigan Basketball: 8 Basketball stars with interest in Wolverines

Michigan basketball is quickly becoming a highly desired commodity, with several top recruits from around the country who are naming the Wolverines as one of their favorite universities.

Under head coach Juwan Howard, Michigan basketball is competing with the powerhouses from around the league when it comes to recruiting. The Wolverines went from rarely snagging a top 50 prospect, to solely targeting players within the top 50.

And so far, it’s paying off. Howard and his staff have traveled the country to bring the best to Ann Arbor. The problem? While the best basketball players are interested, no one has taken the leap and committed to the program.

“These recruits have really been excited about the new vision and what we have in store,” Howard said at Big Ten Media Days. “Now, I feel once one recruit commits, it’s going to be rapid-fire, everyone else will fall in. Who’s willing to step into the front lines and bet on themselves first? I bet on myself first when I stepped to the line and committed to the University of Michigan.”

Juwan is in entirely new territory, and yet, he’s excelling. As an assistant coach in the NBA, Howard didn’t have to communicate with 16-year-olds, attempting to earn their buy-in to the program. Howard was dealing with grown men who get paid millions to perform at the highest level.

High school lingo wasn’t in Howard’s vocabulary, at least, not much of it. Juwan has his sons to lean on, but the brunt of the project known as recruiting falls solely on the head coach. The former Fab Five member is quickly realizing what it takes to earn the trust of young men and he likened the process to an activity he took part in much earlier in life, dating.

“When I grew up and I was dating a girl, you had to go on the phone and you had to talk to her and you had to sell yourself,” Juwan said. “Now I have to get back into that communicating and talking on the phone. There are guys today in this age group who don’t want to talk on the phone, they prefer texting.”

Howard might not have mastered the art of the emoji, but his communication skills must be off the charts with the interest he’s receiving.

The interest and those interested are coming up next.