Basketball Recruitin': Debut

Hey kids. I've been wandering around trying to figure out what's going on with Michigan basketball recruiting, so I figure it's time to start posting about it on the site. Guidelines:

• This will be a once-a-week feature through summer that will either get picked up by someone else or dropped during football season for obvious reasons.
• We will deign to cover 2015 kids just as much as 2014 kids since Beilein Offer Day is in a month and it's a lot easier to project basketball players a year or two out.

Let's go.

You are not prepared to know the destination of Trevon

Trevon Bluiett is playing very well on the AAU circuit and planning on an official cut to… well, some number of schools. His dad (also his AAU coach) is zen about this:

“I think he has an idea,” said Reynardo Bluiett, who is also Trevon’s AAU coach for Spiece Indy Heat. “I don’t ask him because I’m not prepared to know. He’s got an idea.”

He plans a decision before his senior year starts; popular opinion holds Butler the leader with Michigan and Indiana still strong candidates. Blueitt was one of the top performers at Spiece…

Trevon Bluiett, shooting guard (Spiece 17U)
Bluiett continued to play where he left off the past two weekends on the Nike EYBL circuit.  The thick-bodied shooting guard is a physical wing that plays with pace and patience.  He lets the game come to him.  Bluiett is a great perimeter shooter off the bounce and in the catch and shoot.  The junior has a quick release and good form.  Bluiett also is solid off the bounce getting in the lane and getting to the charity stripe.  The highly touted wing finished with 21 points.

…and seems to be a good fit for Beilein's offense. Here is an indeterminate quote from Bluiett himself:

"They've been texting me constantly, three, four times a week," Bluiett told ChicagoHoops.com recently. "Out of them, I have the best relationship with (Michigan assistant) LaVall Jordan.

"It's good to talk with him now and then."

If we meditate on this we may find enlightenment.

Trevon plus Kevon equals unstoppable power

Kevon Looney was the topic of Sam Webb's weekly Detnews article. Looney is wide open at the moment:

"It's still wide open," Parrish said of Looney's recruitment. "You have Duke, Florida, Michigan State, Michigan, Wisconsin, Marquette, Georgetown, Stanford; and he's a real educational kid, so Stanford and schools like that are going after him as well. It's still wide open for him. He hasn't cut his list yet."

Michigan didn't just pop up on Looney's list because Michigan was tardy recruiting him, they popped up because now they seem like a valid place for a top-ten player to go.

"Michigan was actually the first school his freshman year that started recruiting him," Parrish said. "Coach LaVall Jordan began recruiting him early on, so they're in there. They've been doing a great job with him. We were down at the Final Four that weekend, so he got an opportunity to go and watch the games. Not the championship game, but prior to that, the Final Four games. That always helps because he wants to play on a big stage."

Looney does have Duke, MSU, and Florida already in a top five he'll cut down to in the near future; Sam says "many pundits believe the Blue Devils are leaders in the clubhouse."

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Soon to change his name to Devon

Five-star-ish MS SG Devin Booker has acquired offers from every power you can name, though Duke has probably taken itself off the board with a five-star SG commit. The most recent is Kentucky, and yes it is a little irritating that Calipari would offer a kid ranked as low as 27th.

Booker may or may not hit Michigan's camp on June first:

“I’m not sure [if I can make it to camp],” Booker reported. “I think they mentioned it to me. If I’m up there (in Michigan) and have no camp or anything else, I might go.”

Booker's recruitment is going to extend a while:

“I don’t have any timeframe right now, but probably after the summer is when I might actually cut it down of some sort,” Booker said. “And then I’ll go from there.”

Don't expect any news there for a while.

Also In 2014

CA SF Kameron Chatman has confirmed that he'll be at Michigan's camp, whereupon he'll get an offer.

Instate wing AJ Turner is seeing his options expand as he moves into summer, but appears to be a plan B recruit, as Michigan has not offered yet.

Michigan has continued to show interest in Turner, sitting courtside at the Atlanta Spring Classic the weekend before Spiece, still doing thorough evaluations. Any talk of an offer from the Wolverines is tabled at the moment.

“I’ve still been talking to coach Beilein,” said Turner. “Just going through the process right now, he said keep working hard and we’ll see what happens.”

If Bluiett or Booker goes off the board Turner will be one of the prime candidates to grab an offer in response.

2015/2016

2015 offer day for Michigan is about a month away. Instate combo guardEric Davis($) is a candidate for one of those offers. He's already got an Illinois offer. On Michigan:

“Really I see what they did with Trey Burke, and John Beilein says that I could come in and be the next Trey Burke,” said Davis.

Another candidate is IL PG Hyron Edwards, who has Purdue, Indiana, and Illinois offers and claims MSU is on the docket. Edwards on M:

“The contact is tight,” he said his relationship with the Michigan coaching staff. “It is as tight as it can be right now. Coach (LaVall) Jordan, he is a nice guy. Coach (John) Beilein (too.) The players are great to me. Glenn Robinson III, Spike (Albrecht), Mitch (McGary), we all like this off the court.”

“I watched all of their games actually. I have been to some too. When they played Michigan State and IU, as well.”

He says something similar about State's interest, and has no favorites. He's not looking to make a decision for another year.

BONUS: best typo or best typo?

With all these Big Ten pogroms showing Edwards’ interest, is there a clear cut favorite yet?

Hey man that's football's problem, not basketball.

While I refuse to even mention 2016 football recruits, except when I mention them, basketball is a bit different. Michigan's after the spectacularly-named PG Cassius Winston, who has a couple BCS offers already and looks like he'll be a serious candidate for both Michigan and Michigan State offers in what will be the state's most-talented year in a long time. UMHoops caught up with him:

Despite the fact that he’s just wrapping up his freshman year of high school, Winston has an idea of what he’s looking for in a potential college.

“Point guard dominant,” said Winston. “Where the point guard controls the tempo and the pace and a great coaching staff.”

For its part, Michigan fits the ball.

“I like Michigan. That’s a point guard dominant team with lots of screen and rolls. They support you and they make sure you take care of your books and everything.”

Yes, Michigan fits that bill. It's shaping up to be a rare MSU-M head to head battle:

“I talk to Bacari Alexander a lot and every now and then we talk,” Winston explained. “Probably it’s between Michigan and Michigan State leading my recruitment [right now].”

There is yet another Gordon, his name is Eron, he's a 2016, he's got Indiana and Purdue offers already.