Michigan Basketball inks 5-star recruits on early signing day

Signing day can be a stressful time but for Michigan basketball, the good news poured in early for the Wolverines.

Last year, Isaiah Todd didn’t sign his letter of intent with the Michigan basketball program and that proved to be an ominous move, as he never wound up with the Wolverines.

So the worry about Michigan’s five-star commitments in 2021, Moussa Diabate and Caleb Houstan was understandable. It’s also now a moot point.

That’s because both Diabate and Houstan signed their national letters of intent with the Wolverines on Wednesday, officially making them part of Michigan’s 2021 recruiting class.

Of course, it was expected that both five-star recruits would sign with Michigan basketball Wednesday and it’s actually expected at this point that all six Wolverine commitments will do the same, which Chris Balas of Rivals reported on Tuesday (subscription required).

And along those lines, three-star power forward Will Tschetter out of Minnesota, signed his letter of intent too, and Kobe Bufkin, a four-star combo guard out of the state of Michigan is expected to do the same, followed by Isaiah Barnes on Friday.

Essentially, it means that Michigan basketball’s top-ranked recruiting class will be signed, sealed and delivered. We all knew that Juwan Howard was going to be a really good recruiter, but it’s hard to say anyone thought he would have the top-ranked class in his first full cycle as head coach.

What it means going forward?

Right now, the Wolverines have a lot of momentum on the recruiting trail, with two five-star commitments coming in the last two weeks and that could translate over to the 2022 class.

Michigan basketball is targeting Juwan’s son Jett Howard, a top-50 player, as well as a number of other high-ranking targets and that could be the focus, because it doesn’t seem like there will be another 2021 addition.

The Wolverines were in the mix with Efton Reid, but this team is going to need another guard and will probably look to add to the transfer portal since Mike Smith, Eli Brooks, Chaundee Brown and potentially Franz Wagner will all be gone after this season.

It’s clear that Howard is building a Big Ten contender in Ann Arbor though. Obviously, Michigan State has been recruiting at an extremely high level too, so there’s a bit of an arms race going on right now, but even that for Michigan is exciting.

And with all the struggles in the football program right now, Michigan fans need all the excitement we can get.