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.

Michigan Recruiting - September Visitors

Michigan has a big game against Air Force, but there will be a lot of action in the stands and elsewhere in terms of Michigan athletics.  Not only will the football program be bringing in a multitude of visitors, but several sites including UMHoops and Tremendous have highlighted long lists of visitors for the Air Force game on the basketball front.  There are always a lot of visitors for football games and especially the home opener, but I feel the need to comment today because there will be so many in the stands this weekend that can make such a difference long-term for the school.

2013
There isn't too much to report here.  Derrick Walton and Zak Irvin will be on campus, but both are solid Michigan commitments and are likely on campus just to enjoy the game, get more familiar with the surroundings, and do a little recruiting on some other recruits prospects.  They might help make the visit better for the 2014 and 2015 recruits, but beyond that not a lot to note here.  The one thing that is worth noting is that 2013 prospect Reggie Cameron will be visiting campus for the UMass game on September 15th.  He has already been offered by Michigan and could very well be Michigan's last addition in the 2013 class, taking the former spot of Austin Hatch, who reclassified to the 2014 class.

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:

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.