Player Profile: Michigan has been a premiere destination for shooters like Will Tschetter

With John Beilein as the head coach, Michigan basketball always had at least one dominant shooter on the floor, with guys like Stu Douglass, Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman, Nik Stauskas and Duncan Robinson making big threes for the Wolverines.

Juwan Howard hasn’t recruited a lot of pure shooters in his young tenure with the Michigan Wolverines, but he did go out to Minnesota and snagged three-star power forward Will Tschetter (pronounced “Cheddar”), who has a chance to be one of the better three-point shooters Michigan has had in a long time.

While he is the lowest-ranked recruit in the 2021 recruiting class for the Wolverines, Tschetter can still play a key role for Michigan in the next few years thanks to his length, his smooth jump shot, and his ability to get a bucket.

Let’s break down Tschetter’s high school game and how he can fit into Michigan’s rotation.

The story so far

The Stewartville, Minnesota, native is a three-star recruit ranked as the 24th-best power forward and the No. 2 recruit in the state of Minnesota.

Tschetter comes from an accomplished athletic family. His mom is the all-time leading scorer at North Dakota State, holding more than a dozen school records, and his dad also played football at the school.

This summer, associate head coach Phil Martelli was complementary of Tschetter’s offensive game, as he expects him to pick up the Michigan offense rather quickly.

“Juwan can really teach offense,” Martelli said in an interview with MLive. “We teach at a quick pace. And you need to be able to pick it up. Will Tschetter will be at the top of the list doing that.”

Tschetter fits the modern basketball archetype of a stretch four, as the power forward can be dominate in the post while also knocking down a few threes per game. He’s a confident shooter, and even though he has a fairly low release point on his jumper, he knows how to create space for his own shot.

When the Michigan offense stalls, Tschetter could be a great pick-and-pop guy for the Wolverines, providing a safety valve if action going toward the basket isn’t open.

The best part of his game is that he is far from just a three-point shooter, as the Minnesota native can also make defenders pay in the post, utilizing his size to rise up with mid-range jumpers. He uses his pivot foot like a savvy NBA veteran to beat defenders with an up-and-under or a quick hook shot.

As Tschetter puts on a little more muscle and adjusts to the speed of offense in college basketball, he has a chance to be one of the most talented offensive bigs in the Big Ten in a few years.

Outlook for 2021-22

As talented as Tschetter is, he likely won’t get a whole lot of minutes this season since he’s being buried behind big men like Hunter Dickinson, Brandon Johns, Moussa Diabate and Terrance Williams on the depth chart.

If two of those four big men are in foul trouble, I could see Tschetter coming for a few minutes to provide an offensive burst and give the Wolverines a big body to help defend in the post.

It likely won’t happen this season, but as Tschetter develops within the program, I’d love to see the Wolverines experiment with a five-out offense with Tschetter as the sole post player on the floor, as he can stretch the floor and provide space for guards like Frankie Collins or Kobe Bufkin to make moves in the paint.

Much like Isaiah Barnes, Tschetter is a likely redshirt candidate for this season, which is not a knock on either of them; they will be big contributors for the Wolverines in the coming years, there just isn’t a lot of minutes for them with the current way the depth chart is laid out.

Tschetter being the lowest-ranked recruit in the 2021 recruiting class speaks volumes about the sheer amount of young talent Michigan basketball has coming in. Tschetter will be making big plays for the Wolverines soon, it just might take a little bit of time.