Introducing 2014 Prospect Tyler Wideman

Michigan has many targets in the 2014 recruiting class and Tyler Wideman is definitely among them.  He may not be as high on Michigan's list as players like Devin Booker and Keita Bates-Diop, but he's still a great player and has been receiving a great amount of attention from many Big Ten schools.  He's from Merilville, Indiana and Michigan is going to have to battle if they want to try and take him from schools like Purdue and Indiana.


He's not the highest rated recruit that Michigan is pursuing, but that doesn't mean he's not talented.  In every game that he's played from start to finish, he's scored double figures.  In fact, in a game back in December, he scored 25 pts on 10 for 12 shooting.  That's extremely impressive for a high school recruit, even if their competition is a little suspect in most cases.  Along with his scoring, he's been playing solid defense and rebounding well, which is great for a "big man".  The one thing that I do think he needs to do if he wants to be serious about playing in the Big Ten, is trim down a bit.  All the scouting sites have him weighing at least 240 lbs, which is pretty big.  The one positive of this is that Wideman has acknowledged this and has already begun the process of trimming down (he started at over 250 lbs).


Here are the basic listings for Wideman:

	ESPN	Rivals	Scout	247Sports
Height	6’7”	6’6”	6’6”	6’7”
Weight	245 lbs	240 lbs	240 lbs	245 lbs
Position	PF	PF	C	PF
Rating	3*	NR	3*	NR
Position Rank	#14	NR	NR	NR
National Rank	100+	NR	NR	NR

As I said and you can see from his ratings, Wideman is not the highest rated recruit in the country.  In reality, he's probably one of the lower rated recruits Michigan is pursuing in the 2014 class.  Despite this, I do think he has the potential to move up on the charts.  Not only because he is getting a lot of attention from some big name programs, but also because he is now trimming down and perfecting his game.  If he can combine getting big-time offers and getting into better shape, I see no reason to think he won't move up at least a little by time he moves to a campus.

Right now, I think Michigan is a little bit behind on their recruiting of Wideman.  Of course, the coaches have been following him extensively, but I think Purdue and Indiana are in better positions.  Purdue was the first school to offer him and has been recruiting him extensively ever since.  He's already visited there and according to reports, he seemed to have a great time.  Since Purdue is in his home state as well, it's going to be tough for anybody else to get him in my opinion.

Indiana has also been going hard after him.  Head coach Tom Crean requested earlier that Wideman take a visit to Indiana with some teammates to check things out.  Indiana has a chance in this as well, they're in his home state, are considered an enormous program, and appear to be the rise nationally.  Still, because of the early offer, I think Purdue has the upper hand here.  Wideman has given no intentions how long he wishes to be involved in the recruiting process, but it could be a while.

Despite Wideman's interest in Purdue, UMHoops has his interest for Michigan listed as "medium", which isn't bad at all.  Along with this, Wideman said he had a "good time" when he visited Michigan during the Western Michigan football game and has played alongside 2012 Michigan commit Glenn Robinson III for quite some time.  I do think Michigan's chances could improve in the near future now that Offer Day has passed and the coaches are more involved in the 2014 recruiting, but like I said, it's going to be tough.  We'll see if he gets on campus again and if so, I think Michigan could really start to get back in this thing.

Here's his highlight video: