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 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 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).