Michigan Basketball: Juwan Howard gives Wolverines edge with 2022 big man
The Michigan basketball team has done well on the recruiting trail, especially with big guys and Juwan Howard is a key reason why.
When Juwan Howard came to Michigan basketball as the head coach, he already came with some impressive chops for developing big guys with such examples as Hassan Whiteside and Bam Adebayo, both centers who excelled with the Heat after not being high draft picks.
In his first season with the Wolverines, Howard helped Jon Teske and Austin Davis improve their play down low and this year, the work he has done with freshman Hunter Dickinson is likely to grab the attention of many recruits going forward at the center position.
One center is the recruiting class of 2022 who is strongly considering Michigan is a four-star center Donovan Clingan who was offered by Howard and the Wolverines on Feb. 16.
Like Dickinson, Clingan is a 7-foot-1 center and he’s ranked as the No. 7 center prospect in the 2022 recruiting class according to 247 sports composite rankings and is the seventh-best player in Connecticut, which is his home state.
Clingan also did a recent interview with Dushawn London, a national basketball recruiting analyst for 247 sports and while he mentioned other schools such as Iowa, Rutgers, Syracuse and UConn, he didn’t speak as highly about them as he did about Michigan: Here’s what he said:
"“It was big to get that offer. It’s a big-time school with a great coach. I hopped on a zoom call for two hours with the staff and it’s just a blessing to get an offer from that school. Their message to me was that they see me fitting in well in their program, they like my game and they think I can make it big. They produce bigs very well and having coach Juwan as a coach is huge. He was a good big man himself so that factors in.”"
If you look at the article, Clingan says that he has a good relationship with every school but talked about how big it was to get the offer from U-M. And from the Wolverines perspective, the way he describes his game sounds a lot like Dickinson.
"“One of the best things I think and many coaches have told me is my passing and court vision is pretty good for my size and my position.”"
If Dickinson returns next season to Michigan basketball as most still expect him to at this point, Clingan could possibly have a chance to replace him as the starting center in 2022, and seeing all of Hunter’s success, that’s a tough offer to pass up.