Michigan Basketball: Inside the recruitment of 5-star Harrison Ingram
Just how good are Ingram and Smith?
Harrison is ranked 13th nationally, the fourth-best SF, and No. 1 from Texas. Colin is ranked 104th nationally, the 24th best SF, and 11th from Texas. Both players assigned the same position according to 247 sports, but recently, coach Guiler has taken a different approach: positionless basketball.
“We went positionless with this past year and kind of just allowed different guys to take on different roles,” Greg remarked.
The new system has allowed for Smith and Ingram to get creative with the basketball, and coach Guiler says Harrison’s game reminds him of another, very creative scorer in rising NBA star Luka Doncic.
As unguardable as Luka Doncic and Harrison Ingram are, Greg isn’t convinced Harrison would win in a one-on-one with his teammate, or at least, Guiler believes Smith would object to the notion of Ingram’s superiority.
“I feel like Harrison, over the course of their two seasons together, has probably won more of the one-on-one battles and practice, but it’s a pretty tight race,” Guiler said over the phone. “I will say this right now, too. They’ve been in the gym with their respective teams and not under my purview. Just some of the video highlights I’ve seen of Colin, he’s gotten a lot better this summer. That goes for both of them. I feel like I have to say, Harrison, because in practice, what I saw in practice last two years, but Colin would say ‘No, coach, you haven’t seen me in the last couple of months, and I’m ready to go.'”
Ingram has the advantage of being a year older, but Colin has Harrison by an inch in height. Regardless, for a coach to say he’s not entirely confident who would win between the 13th best basketball player in the country and the 104th, that’s saying something.
That should tell the basketball layman there is very little difference between a four-star and a five-star. Just to have a star is a sign a kid is incredibly talented. And these kids are the cream of the crop.