Michigan 2020 basketball class falls in latest rankings

The last month has been one of disarray for the Michigan Wolverines’ basketball program as two seemingly surefire five-star recruits in the class of 2020, Isaiah Todd and Josh Christopher, chose to continue their basketball careers elsewhere.

With pretty much everything set in stone at this point, the 247Sports crew released their latest class of 2020 recruiting rankings, and an expected drop came for the maize and blue — going from the No. 8 slot to No. 12.

As the 2020 recruiting cycle is coming to a close, and despite losing the two aforementioned five-stars, Michigan still earned commitments from three top 100 players: Hunter Dickinson (No. 39), Zeb Jackson (No. 78) and Terrance Williams (No. 89). Head coach Juwan Howard also earned the commitment of his son, Jace, who is a three-star prospect.

Even with the dip in the rankings, Howard and company still hold the No. 1 class in the Big Ten, edging out Illinois 63.26 to 60.76. The Fighting Illini scored two four-star recruits, Adam Miller and Andre Curbelo, both ranked in the top 50, and three-star Coleman Hawkins. The two schools were the only Big Ten programs to finish in top 25, with Wisconsin narrowly missing the cut at No. 26.

Notre Dame AD highlights interesting college football scenario

Notre Dame may be in a pickle this football season. As one of the few teams in Division I to play independent football, the Fighting Irish could have a glaring issue, according to athletic director Jack Swarbrick.

He told CBS Sports in a Zoom conference there is a ‘significant chance’ all the conferences in college football do not begin their season at the same time due to the coronavirus.

Swarbrick fears this because the states and colleges will have different philosophies to schools reopening, depending on how bad the outbreak is in any given state. That will make it difficult to have every college program start at the same time. This could cause a huge issue, as Notre Dame plays schools from almost every Power Five conference annually.

Most of SEC country and some schools in the PAC-12 have already announced their schools will reopen in the fall, so football would be ready to go come September, in theory at least. But where state guidelines are most strict like in Michigan, New York and California, could cause issues with the beginning of the college football season.

Other ideas that have been thrown around recently are a delayed 12-game schedule, only playing games in-conference and the entire season being moved to spring. Only time will tell when we will see teams take the field once again.

Josh Uche agrees to deal with the New England Patriots

Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots moved up in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft to select Michigan linebacker Josh Uche. Now, Uche is the highest-draft pick to agree to terms on a rookie deal as he signed a four-year contract.

National Brews:

• The NFL schedule will be released today at 8 p.m. on a three-hour special on NFL Network. It is expected the games will be played in team’s home arenas in front of fans this fall.
• Major League Baseball is getting ready to make a comeback, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan. The league and it’s owners will send a proposal in the coming days to the players union which would need ramification before becoming official. Passan said in a tweet, “significant hurdles remain for it to become a reality.”
• Starting today, some players in the NBA are able to return to team facilities to begin prepping for a return to action. But first will come a conference call from NBA commissioner Adam Silver with the players to discuss guideline and for players to ask questions about what is next.