Michigan Basketball: Caleb Houstan Names Three NBA Influences For His Game
The Michigan Wolverines enter the 2021-22 season as a program with national championship aspirations, but a ton of new faces. Five-star freshman forward Caleb Houstan packs the most star power as a prospect and is drawing lottery pick praise from NBA talent evaluators before even playing a game.
Head coach Juwan Howard has made a habit of bringing nationally recruited players to Ann Arbor and the culture and vibe he has brought heading into his third year on the job was an easy sell for Houstan.
“The fit in terms of the style of play and coaches, the family," Houstan said at Michigan's media day on Friday in Ann Arbor. "The culture made this a place I felt most comfortable.
“I followed (Michigan) a little bit when I was younger when they had Nik Stauskas and Trey Burke. I came to the camp when I was younger. I was watching them here and there because I watch a lot of basketball.”
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Houstan, who stands at 6-foot-8 and 205 pounds, has played with high-caliber prospects before in high school and with Team Canada over the summer. His acclimation to Michigan does not seem like much of a difficult process thus far.
“It hasn’t been too much of an adjustment," Houstan said. "In high school, I played with and against a lot of big guys. There is an adjustment in getting in the weight room and continuing to get stronger. Putting on more weight is going to help with that. Not too crazy of an adjustment."
Houstan projects to slide into the starting three role vacated by Isaiah Livers. However, Michigan is not pigeonholing him into a certain position.
“I’ve been playing most of my reps at the three," he said. "In and out at the four and the two sometimes. Mostly the three, here and there the four, and once or twice at the two.
“I’m a basketball player. As long as I am on the court, I’m good.”
Houstan's high school film showed a player that has a veteran savvy about his game. He has a good basketball IQ and is able to create for himself, as well as get other players involved.
“I’m a playmaker. I can make plays for myself as well as the team," he said. "I just try to make the right basketball play. I would say I’m a winner. I want to make the best decision and play for the team to win.”
Houstan has taken bits and pieces of a trio of NBA stars to help mold what he hopes his skill-set will be moving forward.
“Klay Thompson is one of them," he said. "Khris Middleton, Jayson Tatum, those are the three. I try to take little things from each of their games and try to watch a lot of film on them and see what I can take to make me better.”
Houstan has spent a lot of time around future pros over the last few seasons. He is coming from a high school program at Montverde Academy that produced 2021 No. 1 overall pick Cade Cunningham and No. 4 overall pick Scottie Barnes, among others. He is also a former teammate of Michigan sophomore guard Zeb Jackson.
“I think the Montverde team with Cade (Cunningham), Scottie (Barnes) and Day'Ron Sharpe, to be on a team like that with those people in practice, that’s one of the things that helped me the most in terms of knowing what I need to do," he said. "Learning from those guys and going against them every day made me better. I’m still continuing to learn from things back then.”
With Cunningham down the road in Detroit, Houstan was able to get back in touch with his former teammate.
“I hit him up when he got drafted, so we are in touch a little bit," he said."
Houstan headlines as freshman class that Rivals ranked third in the nation behind Memphis and Gonzaga. He believes that they are going to come in and make a difference right away this season.
“The freshmen can have a big impact," he said. "We have a lot of good and talented freshmen. You are seeing that in practice in their ability and what they have been able to do. There will be a big impact, especially with there being so many of us.
“Everybody, like Moussa (Diabate) with his length and ability. His shot has gotten better. He has put a lot of work into that. Frankie (Collins) is just being able to make plays. He has a lot of athleticism as well. Kobe (Bufkin) is a natural scorer and really smooth. Will (Tschetter) can really shoot the ball and is really good defensively and rebounds. Isaiah (Barnes) is athletic and can shoot it. We just have a lot of guys who can do many things.”
Michigan's practices have been competitive and physical with no shortage of bumps, bruises and bloody lips. There is no time to slow down for the young guys that are joining a program looking to contend for a national title.
“We go over plays and work on skill development, but we also get up and down a lot," Houstan said. "The nature of our team and how the coaches coach us is to go hard every play. People have been doing that obviously. It’s been going well with people diving on the floor and working hard. Going hard at all times. It’s been really good and competitive.”
It seems likely that this is a one-year tryout for Houstan before testing the NBA waters and he has a few items on his personal to-do list to accomplish before he leaves Ann Arbor.
“I want to keep on working on my ability to create my own shot. Work on my handle. Those are two of the biggest things.
“Just getting better every day. That’s the focus for me. I’m just trying to be the best that I can be for when the season starts. Finding all those little things personally and as a team is really big.”
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