Five-star 2020 guard Josh Christopher is set to bring his recruitment to an end on Monday with a long-awaited decision. Christopher is set to be the crown jewel of the 2020 class for whatever school he winds up committing to.
Christopher named a final four list of schools recently that included the Michigan Wolverines, Arizona State Sun Devils, UCLA Bruins and Missouri Tigers. He would “add” USC to the list of five in the last few weeks, but they have not seriously appeared to be a factor in his recruitment.
Michigan holds 100 percent of the Crystal Ball predictions on 247Sports. The outlet’s composite rankings have him as the 10th-overall prospect in the country and third-ranked shooting guard in the country.
Christopher’s connection with Michigan starts as early as head coach Juwan Howard’s first day on the job back in the spring of 2019. Howard has made Christopher a priority from the jump even when it looked like a pipe dream as recently as the fall. Prior to taking an official visit to Michigan on Nov. 22, UCLA in particular stood out as the potential favorite for his services, along with Arizona State as his brother plays there.
UCLA fell out of serious contention after Shareef O’Neal transferred out and the Bruins seemed to cool off. Michigan has been grinding away in this recruitment for awhile now, led by the efforts of Howard and Saddi Washington.
Despite things being described as “tight” throughout his recruitment, signs have been pointing towards Michigan since the start of the new year. With each commitment that Howard has been able to pull in, starting with five-star commit Isaiah Todd back in October, the Wolverines slowly but surely have made themselves a factor.
Christopher has caused a stir throughout the process on social media, but has been having fun with it given what is going on in the world taking some of the juice out of his recruitment and decision.
“I like to keep the suspense,” Christopher said back in February, via The Michigan Insider. “I don’t like to give people too much. I think the decision should be real suspenseful. I think they shouldn’t know. I think when I make my decision they should be like, ‘oh, my gosh! What?!’”
“There will be a lot of mixed emotions. Some people are going to hate me and some people are going to love me, but that’s just part of it.”
A commitment to Michigan would give the Wolverines a lead dog for next season and a player capable of instant offense and getting a bucket at will, which is something that the 2019-20 iteration of the team did not have. Christopher would be (presumably) the final piece to the puzzle for a team that is projected to have a blend of key cogs from this past year’s team and arguably the most talented recruiting class the program has brought in since Howard’s “Fab Five” teams in the early 1990s.
Christopher is likely a one-and-done and the school that he winds up going to is likely the one that made the best pitch in its ability to get him to the NBA. Given Howard’s background at the next level and the upward trajectory of the program, the Wolverines look primed to add the biggest piece to its 2020 class yet.
Michigan has the No. 4 recruiting class in the country and is pretty much locked into that spot even if Christopher commits. Adding him to a cycle with Todd, four-star center Hunter Dickinson, four-star forward Terrance Williams and four-star guard Zeb Jackson would make this as impressive a haul as anyone could have imagined in Howard’s first full crack at recruiting.
We are not sure how or when the decision takes place on Monday, but the decision is coming and one way or another, the anxiety is set to subside here soon enough.