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Michigan Going After 2021 Five-Star Hooper Hunter Sallis
With Juwan Howard in charge for Michigan basketball, the U-M programs seems to have immediately put itself in a position to compete for top recruits from a national perspective. In the 2021 class, Michigan has locked up three scholarship commits and one preferred walk-on pledge for a group that ranks No. 9 according to Rivals.com.
In that class, Howard has landed a big man in Stewartville (Minn.) Senior power forward Will Tschetter, who is a three-star prospect but also the leading scorer in his entire home state from a year ago. Apart from Tschetter, U-M picked up an in-state pledge from Grand Rapids (Mich.) Christian four-star Kobe Bufkin, and he's a prospect that is 6-4, 175 pounds but has the skill set of a combo guard or a shoot-first ball handler. To round out the scholarship players, Oak Park (Ill.) River Forest four-star Isaiah Barnes also picked Michigan, and he looks a lot like a small forward at the next level.
With those players in consideration, the Wolverines don't quite have a true point guard in the class. Michigan had put itself in fairly good position with Farmington (Mich.) High four-star point guard Jaden Akins, but he recently shut down his recruitment with a commitment to Michigan State. And along that same line, the Spartans have been crushing it on the recruiting trail as of late.
Anyways, with Akins off the board, Michigan sent out an offer to 2021 Omaha (Neb.) Millard North five-star point guard Hunter Sallis on Thursday, and he is an intriguing prospect for quite a few reasons. Hailing from the Midwest, the 6-3, 175-pounder is listed as a combo guard at many recruiting sites, and that is a pretty fair projection at this point. Sallis is slender and not particularly lengthy, but he is a dynamic offensive performer that is very athletic and has great mid-air body control.
From a strict athleticism perspective, Sallis is an above the rim player who is great in transition and can really push the fast break. Sallis looks for his shot first in most instances, so that's where the combo guard designation comes into play. Though the five-star recruit is built like a point guard, he is a scoring threat that may be better suited as a secondary ball handler at the collegiate level.
North Carolina has been linked to Sallis quite a bit in terms of his recruitment, but the offensively gifted guard sports offers from over 20 schools. Some of those programs include Gonzaga, Kansas, Louisville, UCLA, Florida State, Oregon and Wisconsin.
According to Rivals.com, Sallis is ranked as the No. 2 point guard in the entire country for the 2021 cycle and the No. 11 prospect overall regardless of position. 247Sports.com, on the other hand, has Sallis as the No. 2 combo guard and the No. 19 player in the country. So, both recruiting services are bullish on how the five-star player will develop in college.
At the moment, there are not any Crystal Ball predictions for Sallis, but he is expected to narrow his list down relatively soon, so it may have been prudent for the Wolverines to get involved at this point before his focus is limited to only a few schools.
What do you think of the recruiting class that U-M head coach Juwan Howard has assembled so far? Can the Wolverines pull Sallis out of the Cornhusker state? Let us know!
