What will be the impact of hiring Juwan Howard on recruiting for basketball in Michigan



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The Michigan Wolverines officially have their new basketball head coach Juhan Howard, a U-M basketball player.

The Fab Five member will be looking to put things back in order after former head coach John Beilein announced he would leave the university to coach the NBA Cleveland Cavaliers.

One of Howard's first goals as the new head coach is to launch the recruiting process. After 4-star striker Jalen Wilson asked to be released from his letter of intent after the news of Beilein – and that he would now be targeting Kansas and North Carolina -, the Wolverines are are found with a player in their category 2019.

Cole Bajema is a 4 star foward. A solid prospect, but not enough to replace Jordan Poole, Ignas Brazdeikis and Charles Matthews. Even the best player in the 2019 category would not be enough to replace the three starters from the previous season.

Howard must absolutely play hard from the start of the hiring and I think it's quite possible for him. However, I do not think the results will come before the 2020 class.

Let's be realistic: the 2019 class for Michigan will probably not be strong, given the progress of the cycle. With a single commit and a 50/50 shot with another – Franz Wagner – the options are weak. It's too bad that it happened so late in the cycle, but that's what the Wolverines will have to face.

Before stating my next point, let me say that this is a huge blow in the dark and probably will not happen …

That said … Jaden McDaniels, 5-star striker, is Howard's cousin. Although he enlisted at the University of Washington on Tuesday night, his decision is not yet in ink. If Howard manages to phone him and convince him to play for his cousin, he may open his recruiting and take a look at Michigan.

Again, this seems highly unlikely at this point and in a huge shot in the dark, but as McDaniels has not yet signed his letter of intent, who knows what could happen?

As I said before, I think that the 2020 promotion will be the moment when we will start to see real results in terms of recruitment. The top 50 4-star guard, Zeb Jackson, is still on board, which means Howard could get to work and locate the other guys that would work in his system. What his system would be exactly remains to be determined, but I have the impression that it will not be the same as that of Beilein, where he accepts transfers of 3 stars / undesirable and develops them to make good academic players ( Duncan Robinson, pre-wounded Spike Albrecht, Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman, etc.)

If Howard is looking for top-ranked players to play, I do not see how he could not get some of those guys. Howard is a big name, a former college player and a very friendly person. Hell, Dwyane Wade and LeBron James endorsed Howard on Twitter even before the news was official.

Just as Penny Hardaway does for his alma mater Memphis, I think Howard could recruit at a high level and get elite perspectives to participate in the program. It may take a little while, but Howard has everything he needs to be a successful recruiter and coach for the University of Michigan.

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