Introducing 2014 Prospect Jae'sean Tate

Another elite prospect for Michigan, Jae'sean Tate is immensely talented and will be a major "get" for any school.  Michigan has been pursuing him and he's sure to be one of the coaching staff's focuses for 2014.  He's not rated quite as high as some of Michigan's other targets such as Kevon Looney, Devin Booker, and Keita Bates-Diop, but he does have great talent and will probably end up as one of, if not the highest rated player in the state of Ohio for 2014.  This marks the third player in recent history that Michigan will pursuing  from Ohio; Trey Burke in 2011, Caris LeVert in 2012, and now Jae'sean Tate in 2014.


Tate has been called a great rebounder and a "hard nosed" player, which is definitely good to hear.  I also watched some of his highlight videos and he appears to have a great "feel" for the game.  He appears to be able to find open players at will, which is extremely exciting.  Some say he's pretty small for his size, but I'm not completely convinced on that part.  Yes, he's only 190 lbs, which is on the small size for 6'5" (depending on your source of course), but it's not as if it's a huge problem for him at this point.  Like some of Michigan's other prospects such as Bryant McIntosh, I think it's pretty likely that he will be a lot bigger when he gets on campus.  Along with this, he probably doesn't have to put on that much weight to be fine for college play.  Look at Kevin Durant.  Obviously, I'm not going to compare Tate to Durant yet, especially not at this stage of his development, but Durant is at least 4 inches taller than Tate, but only weighs 235 lbs.  If Tate can put on a good 15-20 lbs before he comes to Ann Arbor, he should be more than fine to make it in the Big Ten.


Here are the basic listings for Tate:

	ESPN	Rivals	Scout	247Sports
Height	6’5”	6’5”	6’3”	6’5”
Weight	190 lbs	200 lbs	190 lbs	205 lbs
Position	SF	SF	SF	SF
Rating	4*	3*	3*	NR
Position Rank	#16	NR	NR	NR
National Rank	#52	NR	NR	NR

If anything, I think this chart makes my point about Tate's size even more legitimate.  He's probably a tad bit bigger than 190 lbs and he might also be shorter than 6'5" although to me that seems pretty accurate, especially considering three scouting services have 6'5" for him.  He isn't one of the three players that have been offered by Michigan yet, but he's gotten some interest from schools like Georgetown, West Virginia, and Purdue and has been offered by Dayton and Xavier already.  I think it will be awhile before Michigan offers Tate, if they do at all, but I think he is in good position to get an offer in the future.  Beilein has gotten some great players out of Ohio and I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Tate was the next.


This is a recruit I feel pretty good about for Michigan.  He is far from being Michigan's top priority in 2014, but there seems to be a lot of mutual interest between the school and Tate.  UMHoops has his interest listed as "medium-high", which is a really good sign, especially since he doesn't have an offer at this point and might not get one for awhile.  Along with this, he has only had positive things to say about Michigan.  He even said Michigan was one of his "top" schools.  One side-note is that his recruitment seems to be a long one and we probably won't know his intentions for a while.  If Michigan offers, I could see his process speed up a little bit, but because I think that could be a while, don't expect much development on this front anytime soon.


Another interesting side-note is the location of Tate's school.  You may recognize the school, Pickerton, from fellow Michigan recruits Taco Charlton and Caris LeVert.  This school is turning into a hot-bed for both Michigan football and basketball and could be one of the rare schools to give a school three years straight of at least one commitment, LeVert in 2012, Taco in 2013, and potentially Tate in 2014.  I can't see this being too large of a factor, but having a teammate already at Michigan (LeVert) should definitely help Michigan's chances.


This recruitment process might take a while to conclude, but I like Michigan's chances, especially because of the good vibes coming from Tate and his school's Michigan connections, are good.  Michigan may not be going out fully for his talents quite yet, but I think they are going to deeply pursue him over the summer and during the fall.  He's a very talented player and almost every recruiting service has him as one of the better players in Ohio and the nation.  This is a process that will have some ups and downs and is one to follow closely as it may end in surprising fashion.


Here's his highlight video: