Michigan Basketball: What’s next after missing on Donovan Clingan?

Friday wasn’t a good day for Michigan basketball recruiting as the Wolverines were dealt a couple of blows in the 2022 recruiting class.

When Donovan Clingan left after his visit to Ann Arbor, there was some confidence that he was going to become a Michigan basketball commit.

Unfortunately, Juwan Howard and company couldn’t overcome in-state school UConn, which got the commitment of the four-star center from Bristol, Connecticut on Friday night.

Despite being an ideal replacement for Hunter Dickinson, who isn’t expected to return to Michigan basketball after his sophomore season, assuming he returns for that, Clingan announced his decision Friday night, following a recent trend of crystal ball predictions for the Huskies.

He captioned his announcement: “1000 percent committed,” so Michigan basketball will need to re-evaluate its options at center, which has already started with Tarris Reed Jr. taking a visit to Ann Arbor this week.

Clingan is ranked 44th overall in the 2022 recruiting class and missing on him hurts, but there is still plenty of time for Michigan to recover and expand its board.

Another target off the board

However, in another piece of bad news, Michigan basketball didn’t make the top five for five-star Jalen Duren, the No. 1 overall recruit who is expected to play professionally.

Still, it was a bit surprising. Michigan was considered the favorite or at least among the favorites if Duren decided he was going to play college. But Duren has been thinking about re-classifying and if he was to play college hoops in 2021-22, U-M wouldn’t have any room.

Kentucky, Memphis, and Miami were the three college options, as well as the NBL and the G-League. Duren wasn’t really expected at Michigan but this ends the pursuit for good.

Five-star Dereck Lively, who just took a huge leap in the rankings, is another possibility for the Wolverines in 2022. He’s a dominant shot-blocker and ranked in the top 10 of the 247 sports composite rankings, but Kentucky is the favorite.

That means Michigan will need to likely expand the board at center in 2022. Jett Howard is still the top target overall and getting him will be huge.

Yet, the Wolverines could be lacking depth at center if Moussa Diabate only stays a year, so U-M needs a big in 2022, and Friday’s developments will likely force Michigan to expand its offer list.