Four-star 2021 forward Isaiah Barnes commits to Michigan

The Michigan Wolverines and head coach Juwan Howard have landed their first commitment of the 2021 recruiting class in the form of four-star forward Isaiah Barnes (Oak Park, Illinois), who made his decision on Wednesday.

Barnes went from unrated to 247Sports’ No. 85 overall player in the country in the latest rankings released on Wednesday, has been a rising prospect as of late and earned an offer from Michigan earlier this spring. After a strong junior campaign, his offer sheet had expanded greatly with schools like Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, TCU and Wisconsin headlining the list.

Given Howard’s ties to the Chicago area and state of Illinois, it seemed as if it would be a matter of time before that paid off for Michigan. Columbia transfer Mike Smith comes from the area, but we had not yet seen them land a high school recruit from Illinois just yet. Now, that has changed.

With Barnes’ commitment to Michigan, the Wolverines now have four scholarship spots remaining for the 2021 cycle. They are expected to continue to heavily pursue guards in this class.

We will have more on Barnes and what he brings to the table soon.

This story is developing.