Michigan Basketball: Latest on visit of 5-star Yohan Traore

Michigan basketball is hosting five-star Yohan Traore this weekend, but another visitor that was expected didn’t make the trip. 

While most Michigan fans are focused on the football team and the game against Rutgers on Saturday, it’s also a big weekend for Juwan Howard and the hoops team.

Football season is always an important time for college basketball recruiting. Players take visits during football weekends and go to the game and it’s part of the whole experience.

This weekend is a huge recruiting weekend for Michigan basketball as the Wolverines are hosting five-star center Yohan Traore.

Traore has made a meteoric rise in the 2022 rankings and is now all the way up to the 10th overall in the 247 sports composite rankings.

Michigan basketball made his top 10 and while UCLA, Texas, and professional basketball could be an option, the fact that he’s in Ann Arbor is a big deal.

The Wolverines have two recruits committed in 2022 and one of them, Tarris Reed, a 6-foot-10 big man, is going to be on campus this weekend too.

Michigan is probably hoping to sell Reed and Traore on the possibility of playing together. Traore is 6-foot-10 and a center just like Reed, but he’s a different kind of player.

Some scouts have even compared Traore to Giannis. He’s an incredible athlete, has really solid handles for a big, and could absolutely play with a more traditional big like Reed.

Sam Webb of The Michigan Insider also reported on The Michigan Insider Podcast that Chris Webber could be in town, which would be one way to sell the two youngsters on playing together since C-Webb and Juwan did the same thing many years ago.

Webb said he was hearing it through the grapevine and it wasn’t a sure thing but that could certainly help.

Another thing Webb reported is that four-star forward Colin Smith, who was expected to visit this weekend, won’t be making the trip.

What this all means for Michigan

That makes it seem more likely that Michigan basketball would take the commitment of Gregg Glenn, who is committing in less than two weeks and right after a visit to Ann Arbor.

The idea was that this class would have four recruits. But it could easily be five. Hunter Dickinson is likely leaving for the NBA draft, as well as DeVante Jones and probably Caleb Houstan. Brandon Johns and Adrien Nunez should be gone too, which would equal five spots.

Michigan is the only school Glenn visited and I wouldn’t expect Traore to be making a decision in the next two weeks. This recruitment should take longer than that.

So one possibility is taking Glenn now and then aiming to still land Traore. That’s my read of things right now, but of course, it can all change in an instant.