Thursday Recruiting Roundup: Things heating up for Josh Christopher, Greg Brown

If you haven’t noticed, Juwan Howard and Michigan basketball are killing it on the recruiting trail. They have the No. 4 ranked class in 2020, and it could go as high as No. 2 if they land their final two big-time targets.

In today’s roundup, we will discuss how things are going with those two five-star targets, as well as two 2021 defensive targets for Jim Harbaugh and company.

Encouraging updates on two five-star hoops targets

Maize n Brew Site Producer Anthony Broome wrote a bit on 2020 five-star guard Josh Christopher a couple days ago after two Michigan insiders gave crystal balls to the good guys, so I won’t spend too much time on him today. But Michigan has done a nice job with him and 2020 five-star forward Greg Brown.

Brown, the No. 1 power forward in the country, visited Michigan last weekend for the big win over MSU. Sam Webb over at The Michigan Insider ($) caught up with Brown’s father, who took the trip with his son.

“Man, we had a great time,” Mr. Brown said. “We got a little bit more than expected to be quite honest with you. I didn’t realize that the Michigan fan base was as excited about their basketball as they are about the football. That was a little surprising. I took Michigan to be more of a football school, so when we saw all of the people in the crowd at the game wearing their maize and blue, it was pretty exciting.”

Brown’s father also told Webb his son “just wants to play with a couple guys that are just nasty, man.” He admitted they are fans of four-star center commit Hunter Dickinson, and they know a thing or two about Christopher as well.

Overall, this is all pretty good news, especially considering Michigan got in late with Brown. Michigan likely is not the favorite to land him as of today, but like Jon Simmons and myself said on Future Brew yesterday — if Texas (the presumed favorite) doesn’t make the tournament and/or Shaka Smart gets fired, the Wolverines would likely catapult closer to the top of Brown’s list. I know that is a lot to ask and hope for, but if you are a Michigan fan, you should want Texas to lose the rest of its games this season.

As far as timelines go, Christopher nor Brown have stated publicly when they plan to make their college decision. It could be tomorrow, or it could be months from now. We just have to be patient with these two and hope for good news.

Three-star CB locks in visit to U-M

A 2021 football player we wrote about last month when he received his Michigan offer is three-star cornerback Ryan Barnes.

When I first spoke with him, the 6-foot-2, 175-pounder from Gaithersburg, Maryland did not know when he’d be visiting. But now his spring trips are finalized, and Ann Arbor is on that list.

Barnes told Maize n Brew he is set to visit Michigan April 8. This will be an unofficial visit, meaning he’ll be paying out of pocket for this trip and could easily set up an official later down the road.

He also plans to visit Clemson March 7, Tennessee March 13-14, Penn State April 4 and East Carolina April 11. He also hopes to get to Virginia Tech, Arizona State, Duke, South Carolina and West Virginia.

“Meeting the coaches, seeing campus and the facilities,” Barnes said on what he’s most looking forward to seeing at Michigan.

Barnes plans to narrow down his list “hopefully by mid-summer,” so he has some time to take his visits and sit down and think about which schools he likes the most.

Following de-commitment, 2021 DE target plans U-M visit

A defensive target in the 2021 class who hails from Don Brown territory (Massachusetts) is three-star defensive end TJ Guy. The 6-foot-4, 240-pounder had been committed to Boston College since November, but recently announced he was opening up his recruitment.

247Sports’ Brian Dohn (FREE) spoke with Guy shortly after his de-commitment, and he told Dohn he is looking to visit some more schools, including to Michigan.

“I plan on going (to Michigan) for a couple spring practices,” Guy said. “I think I’m taking an official visit in June. (I want to) just see the campus and facilities.”

The Wolverines offered him on Jan. 31, so this is pretty quick work by Brown and company to get him interested enough to map out multiple visits, including an official.

Guy holds other offers from Boston College, Pitt, Syracuse and Bryant.

That’s all for this week! Come back Tuesday for another roundup.