Introducing 2014 Prospect Darius Austin

One of the recruits that has been starting to receive a lot of attention has been Darius Austin.  Austin comes out of Illinois and is certainly one of the better shooting guards in the state.  His game is certainly not perfected yet, but with his raw ability, he could be one of the players fans see shoot up in the rankings as his recruitment process continues, especially once more of the big name programs start seriously offering him.

As I said, Austin plays shooting guard, but I think it will be interesting to see where he actually plays once he reaches college.  In reviewing some of his tape, it quickly becomes clear that his major attribute is his ability to get to and attack the basket.  He isn't a bad shooter, but most of his impact comes in the lane and on the free throw line, where he's a pretty consistent shooter I will add.  If we were going on Scout's numbers (6'5"and 170 lbs), I would say that he probably needs to bulk up.  However, MaxPreps has him at 195 lbs and in a recent interview with UMHoops, he said he weighs 204 lbs.  He might need to improve a little more on strength, but size shouldn't be an issue since Tim Hardaway has been pretty good at Michigan and he has nearly identical body size listings.  He is also pretty active in transition and has the ability to get other players involved with his passing, especially when going to the basket.  He's a decent rebounder, but I didn't think he was quite effective enough to call him "great".  The big things I think he needs to improve on are becoming a more consistent shooter, whether creating more space for himself with his impressive speed or while being defended, and I think he could get a little bit stronger.



Here are the basic stats on Austin:

	ESPN	Rivals	Scout	247Sports	Future150
Height	6’5”	6’6”	6’5”	N/A	N/A
Weight	N/A	N/A	170 lbs	N/A	N/A
Position	SG	SF	SG	N/A	N/A
Rating	NR	NR	3*	NR	NR
Position Rank	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
National Rank	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR

As evidenced by the rankings, Austin's recruitment is still in the early stages.  Only three of the major scouting services have listed him and only one has actually ranked him.  We've already addressed the height and weight issues, so those can largely be ignored, but if Austin's statement to UMHoops was true, which seems pretty likely, I do wonder where Scout got that weight listing.  Either way, he seems to be about 6'6" and 205 lbs.  For position, this is something I talked about earlier.  I think he easily has the ability to play the 2 and the 3 and Rivals seems to echo that opinion.  If he can improve a little on his shooting, he has the ability to be one of the best shooting guards out there because of his ability to attack the basket, but for now, I really do believe he will be in that forward position.  Finally, his ranking.  At this point, a 3* ranking seems appropriate, but I could see it getting raised to a 4* in the future, if he is able to step up his game.

So far, Austin has attracted interest from numerous colleges including DePaul, Illinois, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Purdue, and Tennessee.  He has yet to receive offers from any of these schools, but it only appears to be a matter of time before that happens.  I do think that the coaches are looking to see improvement as well, but that a good number of these schools will offer him at some point.  I do have a feeling Illinois will make some noise here, but for now, Austin said he had no favorites to UMHoops.

Austin has already made a visit to Ann Arbor, said positive things, and plans to visit again.  To me, that is the ultimate sign of a good recruiting visit, when a recruit wants to return.  I think if Michigan really pushes its efforts towards Austin, they could get a commitment, but until either Michigan or somebody throws out an offer, it appears to be anyone's game here.  His recruiting is still heating up and it will likely be awhile before any of the major programs really try to get him to commit.  For Michigan, an offer will likely depend on what guys like Devin Booker and Keita Bates-Diop decide to do.  If they go elsewhere, Michigan will probably have to offer a few more guys like Austin, but if they decide to commit to Michigan, I'm not sure if Austin will actually get the offer.  If I had to predict now, I would say that if he doesn't commit somewhere else before the final stages of the recruitment process, he will get an offer, but probably not before then.