McDonald's Nuggets: Howard's potential, the battle for Boston and more
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What does Juwan Howard's hiring at Michigan mean? Plus, a name to watch and a classic recruiting battle to track in this week's McDonald's Nuggets.
MORE HOWARD TO MICHIGAN: Advantages/challenges in recruiting | Five recruits Howard needs to target | Twitter reaction
WHAT'S ON MY MIND: Howard comes home to Michigan
People do it all the time, and to some extent, I get it. If you have been following the Michigan coaching search at all over the past week that led to the hiring of Fab Five member Juwan Howard, you have probably seen media members downplaying the potential of this hire on the basis that others with a similar background in the past haven’t worked. Chris Mullin didn’t work at St. John’s. Sidney Lowe flopped at NC State. The jury is still out on Patrick Ewing at Georgetown. Fred Hoiberg worked out great at Iowa State.
My opinion is let’s just judge Howard on his own body of work. What other former NBA players going back to coach their alma mater did has zero impact on how Howard will fare. There probably aren’t a lot of people who care more about Michigan basketball than him. That matters. He has instant credibility with recruits, their parents, and the people around them who know anything about basketball. He’s been with the Miami Heat for the last several years, so I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that he’s probably learned a thing or two about coaching from Erik Spoelstra and Pat Riley. Lastly, through mutual friends, I’ve heard Howard is really highly respected by NBA players in player development and I have heard he’s a really hard worker.
He make take some lumps early adjusting to the college game, but this will work for Michigan in the long run. I have zero doubt he’ll recruit at a high level and he’s going to figure out the coaching part.
PREDICTION: Jabari Smith is in for a big year
I have been watching Class of 2021 four-star power forward Jabari Smith play for over a year now. Last year at this time, you could see the talent level. He was somewhere in the 6-foot-7 range with long arms, good athleticism, and he was comfortable putting the ball on the floor as well as shooting from three-point range. He had no high-major offers at the time.
Fast forward a year, he stands closer to 6-foot-10 with an improved overall skill level. He’s now in double digits in high-major offers. If you read any coverage of the U-16 Team USA trials, most reviews were that he was the top player in attendance on opening night.
The only hole in his game right now is his lack of strength, but that will come in time. Much like we have seen Walker Kessler’s recruitment take off out of Georgia over the past year, I predict we will see Smith’s take a very similar path with all the blue bloods getting involved.
RECRUITING NOTE: B.J. Boston down to four
It didn’t exactly come as a surprise that the four schools remaining on five-star Class of 2020 wing BJ Boston’s list were Auburn, Duke, Florida and Kentucky, but it was a little surprising that he officially cut his list this early. Auburn’s “in” with him has been through his travel program AOT, which has Isaac Okoro headed to play for the Tigers this year. Bruce Pearl has recruited Georgia as well as anybody over the year. Florida jumped on Boston really early and he’s been on campus there a few times already.
However, if I were setting odds on where Boston ends up, I’d put Duke and Kentucky at the top of this race. Duke had the momentum for a while here and some thought a commitment could be coming, but Kentucky has really closed the gap and possibly even nudged ahead of the Blue Devils here. Until decision day, I’m expecting this to be a classic recruiting battle between John Calipari and Mike Krzyzewski in the Peach State.
COMMITMENT OF THE WEEK: Jayden McDaniels to Washington
I’ve never talked to Jaden McDaniels, but the general vibe people get from him is he’s a quiet kid that doesn’t like to be in the spotlight. That’s why it makes all the sense in the world that he put out a tweet that he’s committing to Washington without any heads up to the media and did so after midnight local time, which meant all the upset Kentucky fans were likely already asleep for a few hours.
This is HUGE news for Mike Hopkins. He now has two of the top seven prospects in the 2019 class signed in Isaiah Stewart and McDaniels, along with RaeQuan Battle. The Huskies also have Quade Green becoming eligible at the midpoint this season. Good times appear to be coming to Alaska Airlines Arena this year.