Target Spotlight: Devin Booker

Atlanta, a place Kentucky did not go this year.

Michigan missed on what I believe was the best recruit they were going after in the 2014 class.  Devin Booker selected Kentucky over others.  However, I had a preview already written up, so here's a breakdown on him if you can stomach it:

Booker is listed at 6'6" and 194 lbs.  He is currently ranked as a 5* according to the 247Composite rankings, as the #5 shooting guard in the nation, and as the #1 player in Mississippi.  Booker committed to Kentucky over Michigan, MSU, Missouri, and others.

Skills: 
Booker's bread and butter is his shooting.  He's not only a very good outside shooter, but he's a very good spot up shooter and has a deadly stepback jumper.  Defenders have to stay completely dedicated to Booker because if they give him any space, a shot's probably going up.  Along with his shooting, he can effectively use ball screens to drive the lane.  When he does this, he also protects the ball well to avoid turnovers.  Add in a decent crossover and he becomes a really good offensive weapon.  When he does get to the rim, he can make some impressive dunks and can adjust to finish at the basket.  He can also move well without the ball and make cuts to the basket that really threaten defenses.  Finally, he has solid athleticism, can run the court, and can use his hands and length to disrupt a lot of shots on the defensive end of the floor.

Limits: 
As with most 5* recruits, this list is pretty short.  The biggest things that Booker needs to do to improve his game are to improve his defense and strength.  His defense is certainly not bad, but there are times when he allows an opponent to get to the edge of get enough space to do some damage.  Of course, this happens to everybody, but being aggressive and physical is important when playing against lengthy college players.  Along with this, his frame is pretty small considering his height.  To be able to be a threat driving to the lane in college, he could definitely use a little more weight and strength.  Finally, there are times when he can't quite finish at the basket and opponents will try to be physical with Booker to disrupt his game.  This is where the added strength will help, but of course, this is a minor note since he often goes to the free throw line as a result of these plays and hits upwards of 80% of his free throws .

Quick Prediction:
Booker is going to be a really good college player and will probably be selected pretty highly in the NBA Draft sooner rather than later.  Booker has the potential to be a deadly outside shooter like Stauskas, but also handle the ball like a Hardaway.  He has a very bright future in the college game.

2014 Basketball Target Hotboard

Photo Credit: Thomas Beindit

Michigan basketball has been on the upswing for the past few years, but its recruiting has also been improving.  Whether it was landing underrated point guard Trey Burke in 2011,  5* recruits Mitch McGary and Glenn Robinson III for the 2012 class or 5* recruit Zak Irvin in 2013, the Wolverines have been on the upswing in recruiting.  The 2014 recruiting cycle has been in full swing for awhile and Michigan is in on some big players.  Check out the list below and links to breakdowns on each target:

• Point Guards
• N/A
• Wings
• Kameron Chatman
• Donte Grantham
• Austin Hatch
• Bigs
• Ricky Doyle

Michigan Basketball: A Scholarship Update

Photo Credit: Thomas Beindit

In early June each year, Michigan basketball begins offering the next cycle of recruits.  This June, Beilein and his staff began offering the class of 2015 recruits.  As of now, only a handful of recruits have received offers including Luke Kennard, Jalen Coleman, and Jalen Brunson.  However, something that is incredibly important, but often gets swept under the radar, is the scholarship situation.  Michigan has finished recruiting in the 2013 cycle, but the 2014 and 2015 cycles are in full swing, which makes this an interesting discussion.  So let's take a look at where things stand:

2014 Cycle:
Currently, Michigan is set to have 10 scholarship players for 13 open spots for the 2014-2015 cycle.  This means that the Wolverines can take up to 3 commits in the 2014 class.  As of now, Michigan has 2 commits in the class (Austin Hatch & Ricky Doyle) and 1 open spot.  With numerous offers out this begs the question of how Michigan will make room for potentially 2 or 3 recruits for 2014 class.  The clearest answer can be found on the current roster.  Mitch McGary and GR3 nearly left Ann Arbor following the 2012-2013 season for the NBA Draft.  In all likelihood this will happen following the 2013-2014 season, which would give Michigan 5 open slots for the 2014 and beyond.  With 2 recruits already committed, that means the Wolverines could add 3 recruits to its 2014 class assuming McGary and GR3 leave following the season as expected.  However, I'm not completely convinced Michigan will max out the scholarship slots for 2014.  Verdict: 4 member 2014 class

2015 Cycle:
As we get farther out in the predictions, things always become tougher to predict.  There are some major questions about how the 2014 class will end, but there are even more about the 2015 class.  If we continue using the verdict listed for the "2014 cycle" that means Michigan will start the 2014-2015 season 1 scholarship short.  This team would feature a bunch of seniors and Derrick Walton and Zak Irvin as sophomores with an even bigger chance of a jump to the pros.  It's hard to believe that the 2014-2015 season will end without at least one player jumping pro.  This brings the scholarship numbers to roughly 10 out of the available 13 for the 2015-2016 season.  It wouldn't be too difficult to imagine another person jumping pro or transferring, which would open up 4 slots for this class.  Many of the players look committed now, but if they aren't getting playing time in roughly 2 seasons and Michigan lands some big 2014 recruits, they may start looking around for playing time.  With this in mind, the class will probably end up around the same size.  Verdict: 4 member 2015 class

2016 Cycle:
If predicting the 2015 class wasn't hard enough, for some reason I've taken the challenge of looking at 2016, which is nearly impossible.  Using the predictions listed above for the 2014 and the 2015 classes (which will probably prove faulty), it would leave 3-4 open scholarship positions for the 2016 class.  This depends on whether one of the older players transferred or one of Irvin or Walton jump pro as listed in the 2015 description.  For this, we'll just assume that it was not a transfer and both Irvin and Walton jump pro.  This would leave Donnal as the only person on the current roster left for the 2016-2017 season.  This gives you an idea of how far we are looking into the future.  Along with Donnal, there would be 4 scholarship players from 2014 and 4 scholarship players from 2015.  So this leaves a class of 4 assuming none of the 2014 or 2015 recruits leave, which seems to be a virtual lock to occur.  For instance, if Michigan lands Devin Booker, will he make it through 2 full seasons and not jump to the NBA?  Seems unlikely.  With this in mind, here's a way too early 2016 prediction.  Verdict: 5 member 2016 class

2014 PF Keita Bates-Diop Picks Ohio State

For many, Keita Bates-Diop had become the most desired prospect in Michigan's 2014 recruiting.  When I posted on him visiting campus a few months back, he was already receiving rave reviews from the scouting services and he has only went up from there.  He performed very well during the summer and to no surprise, had been receiving some major attention from multiple programs including Michigan, Ohio State, Illinois, Purdue, and Wisconsin.

When I first talked about Bates-Diop, there seemed to be a few schools that were really recruiting him hard, but Michigan and Purdue definitely seemed to be high up on his list.  However, Ohio State got in the mix and really recruited Bates-Diop pretty hard and ultimately, recruited him very effectively.  He tweeted earlier today that he committed to Ohio State.  He is now Ohio State's only commit for the 2014 class and will surely do a lot for them in the coming years.

Breaking Down Michigan's Targets In The 2014 247Sports Top 25

247Sports has begun their process of rankings the 2014 recruiting class.  It will be a very long time before they make it through all the recruits and compare them, but they have released a list of the Top 25 players in the 2014 recruiting class.  This list will undergo massive changes before the final rankings, especially because 247 hasn't gotten around to ranking a large number of recruits for 2014 yet, but it's still an interesting list to evaluate.


As I talked about in my breakdowns of the top 2014 recruits according to ESPN, Rivals, and Scout, everyone of these lists needs to be taken with a grain of salt.  ESPN seems to have the best basketball rankings and I've said this on multiple occasions and 247 probably has the worst, but it's just one list. By the end of 247's rankings, they aren't that far off, but they are just so slow are ranking players.  I mean, every other site has a 2014 list with at least 60 players so far, 247's list has just 25 guys.  I mean some of Michigan's top targets haven't even been ranked yet.  This shouldn't disqualify the list as of now, but it is something to note before you look at the overall rankings.

Michigan's Targets In The 2014 Scout75

So far, Scout has compiled a list of the Top 75 players in the country for the 2014 recruiting class and Michigan's targets have placed pretty well in them.  There's no doubt that there will be numerous updates both to the players on the list and players that do not appear before the recruits arrive on campus, but it does start to give us a sense of how Michigan's recruiting is going in 2014 and how Michigan's class might finish.


I don't think this list is perfect by any means and there are some areas that I really think are flawed, but I do think it's worth the time to go through these rankings and analyze the results.  I have generally found that ESPN's basketball recruiting coverage has been the best of all the major recruiting services, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't look at Scout's rankings.  They might look at a player differently that sheds some light on their true talent level.  Even though ESPN is the best, at least in my opinion, they are just one service.  There can be a lot of bias involved, not that I'm accusing anybody, especially with just one service.  To me, this is the most logical reason for using multiple lists.  

Breaking Down Michigan's Targets In The 2014 ESPN60

ESPN has released their 2014 basketball rankings and it has worked out well for Michigan's 2014 recruiting targets.  These type of rankings mean little in the long run, especially because recruits often outperform or underperform these ratings once their arrive on campus, but they are probably some of the clearest measures for high school talent and when coupled with other ratings, can usually be relatively accurate in their predictions.


Just a few quick reminders.  First, I have generally found that ESPN's basketball recruiting coverage has been the best of all the major recruiting services.  It's not perfect, but it has been the best.  Other services have done some great things and I think that they have improved in some areas, but overall, I still give the nod to ESPN.  The most important thing, however, is to compare where recruits are placed on different lists.  If a person uses just one or two services, they are probably going to get a limited idea of a recruit's potential.  Combining different recruiting services, offer lists, and video seems to be the best.  Regardless, here are the rankings for the ESPN60 in 2014:

2013 Prospect Vitto Brown Visits Michigan

Michigan's summer basketball recruiting continues to pick-up with a flurry of visits occurring today.  It's already been reported that 2013 Michigan prospects Zak Irvin and Mark Donnal along with 2014 prospect Devin Booker were all visiting Michigan today.  However, the most intriguing visit is from Ohio power forward Vitto Brown.  


Brown is a 2013 prospect and hasn't received a lot of attention from the major scouting services.  Although he does have some decent ratings on some of the sites, for the most part he's not close to some of Michigan's more hyped 2013 recruits such as Derrick Walton and Mark Donnal.  Despite this, Beilein has consistently went after some of the recruits that fall under the radar and I think that could be happening with Brown.  

2014 Recruit Trevon Bluiett Visiting Michigan Today

Michigan's 2014 basketball recruiting is starting to pick-up.  After offering Devin Booker and Keita Bates-Diop on June 15th, Michigan's Offer Day, they now have another high profile 2014 recruit on campus.  Trevon Bluiett is a small forward from Indianapolis, Indiana and is rated as either a 3* or a 4* by the major recruiting services.  He isn't Michigan's top priority for 2014, but he could be very important to finishing out this class.

He's received offers from many top programs around the country, including Florida, Indiana, Illinois, Notre Dame, and Louisville.  So even though his ratings may not be "off the chart", they are certainly good enough to get him in with the top programs around the country.  Michigan hasn't offered him yet, but I think they will offer him in the future, which makes today's visit even more important.

Introducing 2014 Prospect Bryant McIntosh

One of the wildcard recruits in the 2014 class is Bryant McIntosh.  Some of the players that Michigan is pursuing in 2014 have received great ratings across the board, such as Kevon Looney, Devin Booker, and Keita Bates-Diop.  However, McIntosh has received very inconsistent findings by the major scouting services.  Some say he's a point guard, some say he's a shooting guard.  Some say he's a 4* recruit, while others say he's only a 2* player.  These things tend to settle down as the recruiting services get more time to review the player and he matures, but this massive flux is quite interesting.


I have often been confused at the massive differences between recruiting services, but it seems even more evident in McIntosh's case.  ESPN, who is widely considered (and rightfully so) as the best at picking out basketball talent, has only positive things to say about McIntosh.  They've rated him extremely high and said that he's "tough" and plays with "swagger".  He is also labeled as a good shooter and as having a great feel for the game.  The only thing that currently plagues him, as it plagues most sophomores, is that he's relatively small.  He's not tiny by any means, but the main issue is strength.  Right now, I don't think he's even close to being big enough and having enough strength to make it through a full Big Ten schedule.  Of course, he will probably be a good bit bigger when he actually plays college basketball, but that is the one thing that might have given him such low rankings on some other scouting services.

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).

Wrapping Up 'Offer Day' For Michigan

It was an exciting day on the basketball recruiting front.  There may not have been any verbal commitments, but there was surely a ton of action throughout the day.  Not only for Michigan, but the entire country.  Michigan's main focus for the day was on Devin Booker and Keita Bates-Diop.  They were the only players that were offered today and they are, without a doubt, the base of Michigan's 2014 recruiting.

Earlier this week, I said that I wasn't convinced that anybody would commit on 'Offer Day', but that Booker was the most likely candidate if somebody did commit.  Obviously, nobody committed today, but that shouldn't be a negative for Michigan fans.  Yes, at this time last year Beilein already had two commitments, but Michigan is in great position for many high profile recruits in the coming months and I still do believe it's only a matter of time before Devin Booker commits to Michigan.  He was tweeting earlier today about the desire to talk things over with his family before making any college decision and personally, that doesn't bother me one bit.

Who Could Be Michigan's First 2014 Commit?

As most following Michigan basketball know by now, Michigan will extend its first offers to 2014 recruits on June 15th.  Now, we don't know how many offers Michigan will extend on the 15th or how long it will take to gets the first commitment of 2014, but we can take a look at who will be the most likely to commit first.  There are a few likely candidates and there's always the possibility that several recruits will commit on the spot as some of the 2013 recruits did last summer, but I think one candidate rises above the rest as a likely commit.

Devin Booker, a 2014 SG from Moss Point High School in Mississippi, looks to me as the prime candidate for a quick commitment for Michigan.  Ranked as a 4* recruit by ESPN and as the #23 player on the ESPN60 for 2014, he would be a great pick-up for Michigan.  Beilein and his staff have dedicated a tremendous amount of time to recruiting Booker and he appears to be one of their priorities for this recruiting class.  He's been on campus several times and has also communicated with the coaches on numerous occasions over the past year.

Michigan Basketball In Play For Top 2014 Recruits

Photo Credit: DetroitSBNation

With the release of the Top 50 players according to Rivals, we can now take a look at the position of Michigan's recruiting chances in 2014.  How many recruits is Michigan seriously pursuing and does Michigan have a chance with these top recruits?  Michigan has done very well recruiting for the 2012 and 2013 classes and it should be surprising that Michigan will be competing for some of the top recruits in 2014.

First, before we get into Michigan's chances, let's take a general look at the list.  Only two schools (Virginia, Indiana) currently have commitments on the list.  This shouldn't be surprising, as it's well over two years before any of these recruits will appear on campus, but it does show the momentum of Indiana's program.  Along with this, the list is pretty well spread out geographically, although it is interesting to note that 6 of the top 15 players on the list come from the Midwest area.  Obviously, this does not mean Michigan will get commitments from any of these players, but it does show that there is a lot of talent in the area and that most of the Big Ten teams will probably have a good recruiting year.

Now that we've gone through a few interesting things about the list, let's go into the topic everyone cares about.  Where does Michigan stand with the recruits on the list?  In my opinion, Michigan is in solid shape for several of these recruits.  Michigan will probably never be able to match the recruiting status of teams like Kentucky, but if Beilein is able to keep landing high caliber recruits it will just be a matter or time before he is able to build Michigan's program and prestige for the long-term.

1.  Rashad Vaughn - G - #26 - 4*
Vaughn is a player that I believe could make an immediate impact at Michigan if he reaches campus.  He is listed as 6'4" according to Rivals, but 6'5" and 180s lbs by Scout.  Rivals has him as 4*, but Scout doesn't seem to have him quite as high.  Some of his other offers include schools like Tennessee, Texas, Iowa, and Baylor.  I really think he's a player that could have a big impact playing as a SG.  With Derrick Walton coming in 2013, I couldn't imagine how aggressive Michigan could be with Walton and Vaughn.  This is one to keep on eye on for Michigan fans.


2.  Devin Booker - G - #31 - 4*

Booker is from Moss Point, MS and has received much attention as of late.  Rivals has him listed as 6'3" and weighing 180 lbs, but Scout has him at 6'4" and weighing 175 lbs.  Most speculate that Michigan is in good position to land a commitment, though very early.  Booker also seems to be set-up to be a SG at Michigan, although others speculate that he might be able to play PG as well.  He averaged 23 points per game over this season at his high school, which is pretty impressive.  His father also played in the pros, which may follow the tradition of NBA offspring choosing Beilein as a coach for their sons.  He would be a great pick-up for Michigan and I do think he has the possibility of moving up a bit farther over the next year or so, although it's too early to say for sure.

3.  Keita Bates-Diop - F - #39 - 4*

Keita is from Normal, Illinois (Yes, that's really the name of the town).  He is listed as a small forward, 6'7", and 190 lbs by Rivals and he is listed as a power forward, 6'6", and 180s lbs by Scout.  I think he's a bit too small to be a true power forward for Michigan, especially with some of the immense size Beilein is bringing to campus, but he could do some damage as a small forward for Michigan if he ends up on campus.  He's being recruited by several other Big Ten schools including Illinois, Wisconsin, Purdue, and Northwestern, so picking him up would be pretty big.  I would like to see what he can do over the next few months before I can predict the scale of his impact right away if he comes to Michigan.

4.  Drake Harris - G - #46 - 4*

This could be the most interesting recruit in the 2014 class for Michigan.  Not only is he from Grand Rapids, Michigan, but he is also being heavily pursued by MSU.  This could be one of the first major Beilein vs. Izzo recruiting battles.  Along with this, there is speculation that Harris could be a two sport athlete and play football in the fall and basketball in the winter.  I'm not so sure how feasible this would be in college athletics, but it's certainly something unusual.  Izzo has said he's a "priority" for MSU, which is going to make it pretty hard for Beilein to get him in Ann Arbor.  Harris has had good things to say about Michigan, however, and I think his recruitment is far from over.  Harris is listed as 6'4" and weighing 180 lbs.  This is probably the commit I want the most in this class.  Not only because he's an outstanding player, but who doesn't like stealing a commit away from their rival?

5.  Trevon Bluiett - F - #47 - 4*

The final recruit Michigan seems to be deeply pursuing hails from Indianapolis, Indiana.  He is listed as 6'5" and weighing 185 lbs and a small forward.  Bluiett, like Harris, is going to be a battle for Michigan.  He has received attention from many schools including Indiana, Illinois, MSU, Notre Dame, and OSU.  He is amazingly talented and is going to be a great pick-up for whichever schools he ultimately decides to attend.  This is purely specualtion, but I think this could be a recruitment that goes far in to the future.  Indiana has been doing a great job at snatching up their in-state talent, but I think this might be a player that takes a little longer to convince, if they do at all.



Whether or not Michigan lands these recruits, it should be a great year for Michigan.  Since Michigan has been able to secure so many early commitments in 2012 and 2013, the coaching staff has been able to dedicate a lot of time to 2014 recruiting, which should ultimately help bring in another great class to Ann Arbor.  Make sure to stay tuned because the recruiting battles should start heating up between Michigan and some of the big-time college basketball programs this year.