Michigan basketball went west to pluck four-star point guard Frankie Collins out of Henderson (Nev.) Coronado, making him the fourth member of the Wolverines’ 2021 recruiting class that is currently ranked as the sixth-best in the country, per Rivals.com.
Collins’ decision came down to “relationships, comfortability and opportunity,” his high school coach, Jeff Kaufman, told The Wolverine.
Howard is close with former NBA player Monty Buckley, Collins’ uncle. Collins has had the opportunity to be around Howard growing up and has taken pictures with him when together throughout the years. Collins, who has never visited Ann Arbor, is just the latest to cite relationships and comfortability as the main reason why Michigan, under Howard, was a fit.
“I just really felt more of a family atmosphere at Michigan, and I felt like it was the best place for me to grow as a person and as a basketball player,” he said when he pledged to the Maize and Blue.
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Howard has visited Coronado multiple times, even before Collins transferred in from AZ Compass Prep in Arizona, to see five-star shooting guard Jaden Hardy, the No. 5 player in the country for 2021. Kaufman has observed first hand the recruiting style that the Wolverines have under Howard. The Michigan head man, of course, played 19 years in the NBA and spent six seasons as an assistant coach with the Miami Heat afterwards. He has high-level connections in the league, but that’s not why high school stars are attracted to him, Kaufman said.
“Whether you played, had a great career in the NBA or you didn’t, there’s a lot of great college coaches out there,” Kaufman said. “And, being in the NBA, I don’t think it’s a prerequisite to be a great college coach. It’s not that. What Juwan Howard brings, and certain coaches like [Georgetown head coach] Patrick Ewing, like [Jerry] Stackhouse at Vanderbilt, they bring a certain honesty.
