Michigan Basketball: Significant movement with several priority targets

The Michigan basketball staff isn’t paying attention to the rumors about the potential cancellation of the football season, they’re busy with top prospects.

For the most part, 2020 recruiting is compete. Michigan basketball brought in a top ranked class and a pair of transfers who can really dominate the conference, as long as Chaundee Brown receives a waiver to play.

Even without a waiver, there’s still plenty of talent on the roster to succeed in the next few months, assuming the season goes on as planned, or, at least, in some form.

For next year, the Wolverines have already gathered three quality recruits that are members of a top-10 class nationally, and second in the Big Ten. Some coaches would stop there. Juwan Howard can’t.

Coach Howard has a dynamic shooting guard/wing with Kobe Bufkin, a top-100 small forward with Isaiah Barnes, and a perimeter power forward with Will Tschetter.

All three will be utilized early and often, but Michigan basketball has other needs. One of those could be filled on Thursday.

Jaden Akins, a phenomenal point guard from Farmington, Michigan, is committing this week and although all the predictions have him moving to East Lansing, Michigan appears to be a close second for his services.

If the Wolverines do pull the upset, Akins will come in as a modern point guard with an excellent jump shot, as Dylan Burkhardt pointed out in his evaluation of Jaden ($).

"“On the court, Akins is close to precisely what you want from a modern point guard. He has good size at 6-foot-3 and natural athleticism to his game. He’s smooth on the court, gets to his spots, and can finish around the basket. He’s also an excellent jump shooter both off the dribble and the catch. He had a 60% effective field goal percentage on jump shots last summer in the Nike EYBL.”"

Akins isn’t the only one making decisions. Brandon Weston is set to announce his list of six universities still in the running for him.

Weston, who’s from Chicago, is ranked in the top 60 and is the 11th best wing for his class. While it doesn’t seem likely U-M will see Weston walk the halls in Ann Arbor considering both Bufkin and Barnes will be around to fill that spot, the Wolverines have kept up contact this summer.

Speaking of contact, Jake Weingarten from Stockrisers reported Michigan has reached out to former Louisville commit Bryce Hopkins.

Hopkins is ranked just outside the top 30 for the 2021 class. He cited troubles with the sanctions and appeals as his reasons for reopening his recruitment.

“I opened up my recruitment because there were a lot of uncertainties on what is going on with the sanctions,” Hopkins told 247Sports. “They also keep appealing (the sanctions) which is only making it harder on me.”

Bryce plays ball at Fenwick high school, the same place grad transfer Mike Smith attended.

I was able to watch Hopkins compete against Brother Rice. Here’s my take on his game:

Devastating dunks. Not the fastest kid on the court, but he’s very inventive with his dribble which also allows him to successfully get to the rim quite often. Surrounded by top-notch shooters, could accumulate a lot of assists with kick-outs. When he keeps the ball, will sink layups despite heavy contact. Can hit the occasional three. Gifted rebounder and capable defender. Active hands lead to steals.