Michigan Basketball: Checking status of 5-stars with interest in U-M

Michigan basketball has washed out the bad taste in its mouth from the previous disappointments recruiting five stars and it hot on the trail with several more.

Isaiah Todd and Joshua Christopher were expected to lead the Wolverines as a one-and-done duo for 2020, up until Christopher announced he would be headed to ASU and, shortly thereafter, Todd revealed he’s G League-bound.

Instead of stepping out of the five-star race, Juwan Howard and Co. are embracing the challenge and are hot on the trail of several talented young athletes who could change the trajectory of Michigan basketball.

Check out the latest on Michigan’s five-star recruits below:

Harrison Ingram

Hailing from St. Marks School out of Dallas, Texas, Harrison Ingram is one of the most intelligent kids from the 2021 class and one of the best basketball players. He’s No. 13 nationally, the No. 4 SF, and No. 1 from TX, and he has a reported 4.0 GPA.

Recently, Harrison cut his list of schools to six, which includes Stanford, Purdue, Howard, UNC, Harvard, and Michigan.

Per Rivals, Ingram is either headed to Purdue or Stanford. 247 sports has a low confidence prediction for Stanford.

Efton Reid

U-M is in dire need of a center for the 2021-22 season and Efton Reid would fit perfectly. He’s a former member of Team Takeover with Michigan commits Hunter Dickinson and Terrance Williams, and while he may have left the DMV area for IMG Academy, Rivals analyst Eric Bossi said last week that the Wolverines are the team to beat for his services.

The problem here is that soon after Bossi published the article proclaiming U-M the leaders, he sent out another article highlighting how difficult it is to read Reid.

Charles Bediako

Back to Eric Bossi, who said a week ago U-M is in third place for the near 7-footer Charles Bediako, behind formidable opponents Alabama and Duke. The Canadian native will play alongside Efton Reid at IMG Academy and he could be on the floor at either the four or five.

There are no FutureCasts for Charles, but 247 sports has one crystal ball for Bediako to Alabama with a six confidence.

Trevor Keels

Team Takeover was incredibly stacked last season with Dickinson Williams, Reid, and Trevor Keels, among other future Division I talents.

The relationships built on the hardwood are certainly going to play a role in Trevor’s recruitment, although no one seems to know where Keels is leaning, aside from one guy who put in a FutureCast for Trevor to Villanova this month. The prediction came from Justin Thind, a Rivals MSU insider.

I’m not sure where he got his information, but from all accounts, Trevor is in no hurry to commit anytime soon, and all of the interested universities are still in play.

“The five-star prospect is at the center of one of the most impressive recruiting battles with schools such as Duke, North Carolina, Virginia, Villanova, Michigan, Louisville and others trying to get involved and land the commitment of Keels.” Brian Snow from 247 sports wrote earlier today. “At different times, Keels has seemingly been close to pulling the trigger for Villanova or Virginia, but to this point no school seems to have a firm control over this recruitment.”

Caleb Houstan

Caleb Houstan, who’s ranked eighth for the 2021 class, might be a pipe dream at this point, or UM could be right up there with the likes of Duke. If someone does know what’s on Caleb’s mind, they haven’t told anybody from the major recruiting sites. There are no predictions from either Rivals or 247 sports.

Jaden Hardy

He’s from Michigan, he still has family in the area, and yet Jaden Hardy, who’s been living in Nevada for some time now, is a heavy Kentucky lean.

U-M is targeting his future teammate, four-star Frankie Collins, and if Collins does end up in Ann Arbor, that might change things, however, as it stands, Hardy will be a Wildcat.

Patrick Baldwin Jr.

At one point, the Wolverines were in the mix for the top-ranked player in the 2021 class, but as time has passed, Michigan no longer appears to be a contender for Patrick Baldwin Jr.

Recruiting sites have Patrick headed to Duke, although his dad is the head coach at Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and with the current state of affairs, it wouldn’t surprise me if he ended up staying in-state with his father.

Jalen Warley

Here’s a sore subject. Jalen Warley was the recipient of a FutureCast to Michigan, and then that was changed to FSU, which was followed by a torrential downpour of predictions to the Seminoles.

Hope remains as Jalen indicated, through a tweet, the experts might be wrong about their educated guesses. We will find out his college destination on Sunday, August 9th, at 1 PM EST.