Michigan Basketball is still a top contender for 5-star center in 2022

Dereck Lively, a five-star center in the 2022 recruiting class, released his top seven on Thursday, and Michigan basketball made the cut. 

After signing the No. 1 recruiting class in 2021, Michigan basketball and Juwan Howard are off to a strong start again in 2022 as U-M picked up the commitment of four-star point guard Dug McDaniel.

McDaniel is a guy that people have mixed opinions on, but he’s ranked 82nd overall in the 247 sports composite rankings for 2022 and he’s got the look of a solid, multi-year player in the Big Ten conference.

The Wolverines didn’t start off their 2021 recruiting class by landing a five-star prospect and Juwan is following a similar formula in 2022.

But that doesn’t mean Michigan basketball isn’t in the mix for some elite prospects. Obviously, Jett Howard is considered a Michigan lean and is trending towards the five-star territory. Yet, Michigan is also squarely in the mix with five-star center Dereck Lively, who just released his cut list.

Lively is 7-foot-1 and ranked 20th overall in the class of 2022. He’s from Bellefonte, Pennslyvania, and is being pursued by a number of blue-blood programs.

Joining Michigan basketball on his top-7 list was Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina, Florida State, USC, and Penn State, which as the in-state school did a solid job to stick.

Where Michigan stands with Lively

While Lively released his top seven, Michigan is probably comfortably in the top 3-4. Lively told EJ Holland of Rivals that he was planning on taking a visit to Ann Arbor this fall.

And according to Tristan Freeman of Busting Brackets, the Wolverines should have a good shot of landing him, since he ranked them No. 1 among Lively’s finalists.

At this point, Lively doesn’t have any crystal ball projections. Kentucky has seemed like the favorite but it’s hard to know. Visits will obviously play a key role and for U-M, it’s hard to say Lively is even the Wolverines’ top target at center in 2022.

Howard has been recruiting Donovan Clingan, a 7-foot-1 center from Connecticut, and recently hosted him for a visit. While Clingan also doesn’t have any crystal ball predictions yet, Michigan basketball is among the favorites along with UConn.

Clingan is ranked 40th overall in 2022 according to the 247 sports composite rankings, but he’s more of a traditional center, similar to Hunter Dickinson. That should give Juwan and the Wolverines a nice advantage because Clingan could easily fill his shoes in 2022-23.

But the same argument could be made about Lively. Either way, the Wolverines have some solid future prospects to potentially replace Dickinson after his sophomore season, which should be his last with the Wolverines.