Is Michigan Basketball a serious contender for a pair of 5-stars?
Michigan basketball was named as a finalist for five-star recruits Boogie Fland and Flory Bidunga. But do the Wolverines have a realistic shot with either?
Michigan basketball already has two verbal commitments in the 2024 class, but the Wolverines were also included in the cut lists of two five-star prospects on Monday.
One of those is five-star point Boogie Fland, who included the Wolverines in his top eight along with a number of other big-name schools such as Kentucky, Alabama, North Carolina, Indiana, UConn, as well as Maryland, St. John’s, and Michigan.
Fland is ranked as the No. 8 prospect overall in the 2024 class via the 247 Sports composite rankings. He’s also ranked as the second-best combo guard. The Wolverines already have a couple of guards committed in the 2024 class, but the 6-foot-3, 165-pound Fland is incredibly talented.
Fland has also taken an official visit to Michigan basketball already. We’ll see if the Wolverines can get him on campus again this fall during a football game, but it feels like they are at least a serious contender. The On3 prediction machine gives U-M a slight edge right now.
Where does Michigan basketball stand with Flory Bidunga?
In terms of the five-star center Bidunga, Michigan basketball is also a serious contender and that’s evidenced by the fact that just four teams are still involved as Duke, Kansas, and Auburn also made the top four along with the Wolverines.
At 6-foot-8, 215 pounds, Bidunga is the top-ranked center and No. 4 overall prospect. He also took a visit to Michigan basketball this summer and there was even talk of him re-classifying to 2023.
That doesn’t appear likely now. But Juwan Howard has always had a way with recruiting big men and it wouldn’t shock me if the Wolverines were able to land Bidunga in the end.
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That’s if they can be competitive in the NIL sphere, which has been a question mark at times. Things have gotten better but both of these five-star recruits will be another test of where the Wolverines stand with NIL, because it will take a strong NIL plan to land five-star talent.