Michigan Basketball: More confirmation of a historic recruiting class

It’s been over 20 years since Michigan basketball has landed a McDonald’s All-American but that changed on Tuesday for the Wolverines. 

With the No.1 ranked recruiting class in college basketball during the 2021 recruiting cycle, it doesn’t take a genius to realize the Wolverines did pretty well in Juwan Howard’s first full class of recruits.

Michigan basketball signed six recruits overall and five of them are ranked as four-star prospects according to the 247 sports composite rankings.

U-M signed two five-star recruits, including two of the top 18 players and overall, they signed four of the top 51 players.

That was enough to earn Michigan basketball the top spot in the 247 sports team rankings for 2021, but on Tuesday, the Wolverines recruiting class had another big moment and that’s because three were named to the McDonald’s All-American game.

The last Michigan basketball player to earn that recognition was Daniel Horton and that was all the way back in 2000.

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Considering that only 24 players make the McDonald’s All-American game, it says a lot about the recruiting class that Juwan Howard was able to build and probably adds to the idea that this is the best overall group Michigan has recruited since Howard and the Fab Five.

Caleb Houstan was a pretty obvious choice. He’s the eighth-ranked player in the 2021 class and a truly elite shooter. He will be expected to contribute right away and many view him as a lottery pick in the 2022 NBA draft.

Moussa Diabate, the second five-star recruit to sign in this class is ranked as the No. 18 player overall by 247 sports, while Kobe Bufkin, the other pick, is down a little bit at No. 42.

Bufkin recently suffered an injury to his wrist, which was unfortunate because he was dominating during the recently started Michigan high school season and he’s a guy who was likely going to see his ranking rise even higher.

The 6-foot-4 combo guard is going to be a special talent and the fact that the Wolverines have three of the top 24 high school players coming to Ann Arbor next year tells you all you need to know about Juwan Howard’s ability to recruit elite talent.