Michigan Basketball: Isaiah Todd commitment validates Juwan Howard’s recruiting

Juwan Howard reeled in five-star recruit Isaiah Todd on Thursday. Is this a sign of things to come for Michigan Basketball?

When Michigan Basketball hired Juwan Howard to be the next head coach of the basketball it was met with a lot of cautious optimism. Howard has never been a head coach but had gotten great reviews as an assistant with the Miami Heat. He had also never even been an assistant on the college level. With that, he had never had to recruit and sell his program to anyone.

We still don’t know how he will do as a coach, but as a recruiter, the early results are very good. That was validated on Thursday when five-star recruit Isaiah Todd made his commitment to the Wolverines. Howard has been on the shortlist for a bunch of other highly rated players, but Todd is the first one he has landed. Yes, he got Franz Wagner to Michigan this year, but that wasn’t as big of a get as Todd is.

Todd picked Michigan over Kansas in a recruiting win for the Wolverines that would normally seem unthinkable. Howard is using his experience in the NBA and his love for Michigan to spark the interest of a lot of recruits.

Many people wondered if Howard would start attracting recruits like Penny Hardaway is doing at Memphis and it seems to be working. Howard has made Michigan a national name already on the recruiting trail and it seemed like just a matter of time before it paid off.

But until he got that first commitment it was just a nice story. With Todd’s commitment, though, it proves that Howard can go out and get a big name and is changing the way Michigan is viewed nationally.

John Beilein did an amazing job at Michigan and will be missed, but he definitely recruited a different kind of player to fit his system. He did it better than anyone and almost brought Michigan a national championship.

Howard is looking to build on that but is obviously doing it in a different way. He is going after the top recruits and it is being noticed. The question now is can Todd help attract more big-time recruits and turn this into a top-five recruiting class. Todd is well-liked within the top recruits and now could help Howard bring in more guys, just as Howard helped Michigan reel in Chris Webber and Jalen Rose.

We probably won’t see a Fab Five again, but Howard is off to a good start. Now the Wolverines just need to produce on the court. Either way, the excitement is very high for the Wolverines.