5 Takeaways on Michigan Basketball’s top-ranked recruiting class

Michigan basketball has officially signed all six of its 2021 commitments and here are five takeaways on the Wolverines top-ranked recruiting class.

If what Juwan Howard has done in his first full recruiting cycle as head coach of Michigan basketball is any indication, big things are in store for the Wolverines.

After landing the top-ranked recruiting class in the Big Ten in 2020, despite getting the job at Michigan late in the process, Howard started to truly deliver on his recruiting potential in 2021.

The Wolverines needed to land a big recruiting class after transfers and other attrition. Howard had six open scholarships, at least, to fill and needs at basically every position as he replenished the program with talent.

And yes, despite some very negative attitudes, he was able to sign not one, but two five-star recruits — something Michigan basketball hasn’t done in who knows how long, at least not in the era of 247 sports.

On top of all that, Howard’s efforts has Michigan basketball sitting atop the recruiting rankings for 2021 according to 247 sports, which is also a nice achievement. It may not hold and it certainly doesn’t guarantee any wins on the court, but it can’t hurt.

The impact of that is also where we start our list of takeaways as we evaluate this 2021 recruiting class.

Howard has made Michigan a recruiting blue blood

Don’t think that Michigan didn’t have talent before, it did, John Beilein just wasn’t getting a lot of it via five-star recruits. He scouted and developed and had tremendous success just look at this:

https://twitter.com/CBBonFOX/status/1325543868515954690

Yet, there is no debating that the Wolverines weren’t really a player for the five-star recruits and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

It seems, however, that the teams able to mold multi-year college players the best with the NBA guys who stay just a year or two have the most success in terms of winning titles.

And Howard is helping Michigan basketball reach that level. In 1.5 years on the job, he’s already landed five of the 16 highest-rated recruits for the Wolverines since 2003 and two of the top three.

Obviously, he still has to coach them up, but getting that talent is a crucial first step and it hasn’t taken long for Howard to make an Ann Arbor a hot spot to top recruits.