Michigan Basketball Recruiting: Juwan Howard Offers Five-Star Point Guard
Michigan head coach Juwan Howard has offered five-star Hunter Sallis of Omaha (Neb.) Millard North, a sign that the coach is still exploring all his options when it comes to 2021 point guard recruiting. The 6-5, 175-pounder rose quickly to become an elite player in his class, moving from Rivals.com’s No. 47 player nationally among 2021 recruits in January to No. 11 this summer.
The run on point guards made him one of the more coveted remaining players in his class.
“Due to the dearth of elite talent at the point guard spot to begin with, and the bevy of Rivals150 prospects that have already come to a decision, it has left the market in the hands of Sallis,” Evans wrote. “Kansas and North Carolina have already come calling hard and often, but so have Creighton, Gonzaga, Iowa State, Louisville, Nebraska, Oregon and a slew of others.”
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Kentucky is among those. If the Wildcats offer, Evans told us, they’ll be hard to beat.
Sallis sees himself as more than just a point guard. He can play either on or off the ball and has an all-around game, proving it in averaging 22.2 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game to lead Millard North to the Nebraska state title game this year.
“I feel like I’m a combo guard,” Sallis told Rivals.com’s Eric Bossi. “Whatever a college needs me to play, I’m good with it. If they need me to be on ball that’s fine; if they need me off, that’s fine too. I feel like I’m versatile enough to play both positions.”
Bossi agreed after seeing him play this summer.
“Most who read me know that I’ve been a big advocate of Sallis’ game and long-term potential,” he said. “I was able to watch him playing at an event just outside of his hometown with OSA Crusader, and he backed up all I thought of him. He just gets things done easy at the rim, his shot looks more and more pure and he has the tools to be a big playmaker.”
At one point, Sallis seemed ready to get his recruitment over with as soon as possible. Though most assumed he’d join a “blue blood program,” he noted, home state Nebraska and Creighton remain serious options.
He’s still working on improving his game — and his ranking — heading into his senior season.
“This whole quarantine I’ve just been working,” he said. “My trainer has his own gym, so he has been able to get me in there the whole time. So, while people have been quarantined, I’ve been trying to work so maybe I could jump up a couple of spots.
“I feel like I’m just now starting to get noticed a lot. So that work is starting to pay off. I feel like if got to play a couple of those high ranked guys I could have matched up and competed against them.”
Though U-M is late to the party, Howard could have a chance. Recruits describe him as a guy who is easy to get along with, honest and forthright, and that’s what Sallis is seeking.
“It is how genuine they sound. The things we have noticed are different,” he said. “Like my mom has noticed — and she likes this a lot — that when coaches call me son and they treat me how they would their own kids, or they talk to me how they would their own kids, my mom loves that. My parents love that.
“When they talk about the team being a family … my mom, if I do leave home, she wants me to go somewhere that I’m comfortable and not homesick because I feel like I’m around family there.”
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