Michigan Football & Basketball Each Shined During The 2020 Recruiting Cycle
The Michigan Wolverines' 2020 basketball recruiting class saw some significant changes this week when Raleigh (N.C.) Word of God Christian Academy five-star power forward Isaiah Todd decommitted and Lakewood (Calif.) Mayfair five-star shooting guard Josh Christopher chose Arizona State over U-M, but it's worth noting the Maize and Blue still have the Big Ten's top haul, even without the aforementioned two in the fold.
It also sits at No. 13 in the country, and though it could still move up or down the rankings slightly depending on what the teams around it do, today's start of the late basketball signing period signifies the end of the 2020 recruiting cycle is near.
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Jim Harbaugh and the football program, meanwhile, recently wrapped up a stellar recruiting haul on the gridiron just four short months ago as well, signing a crop that finished No. 11 nationally.
With Juwan Howard's basketball class also (more than likely) set to conclude in the top 15 in the country, we decided to take a look back over the last decade at the best single-year recruiting hauls for U-M's football and basketball programs (to calculate this, we have simply taken the combined national average between the two in a given year).
As it currently stands, the combined efforts of Michigan's football and basketball programs for the 2020 cycle go down as the third best over the last 10 years (since 2011), checking in with an average national rank of 12.
The only two that were better were the 2012 and 2013 hauls, when football's Brady Hoke and basketball's John Beilein signed a combined four classes that all finished in the top 12 nationally.
Hoke's 2012 crop concluded at No. 8 in the country and his 2013 crew No. 5, while Beilein's 2012 group finished No. 7 and his 2013 squad No. 12.
There were a combined five five-stars among the four classes from 2012-13 as well — offensive tackle Kyle Kalis, defensive tackle Ondre Pipkins and small forward Glenn Robinson in 2012, and running back Derrick Green and shooting guard Zak Irvin in 2013.
The 2012 recruiting cycle equated out to an average national rank of 7.5 for the Wolverine football and basketball programs, while the 2013 haul checked in close behind at 8.5.
U-M's football and basketball programs have seldom signed highly rated classes in the same cycle in recent years, with one of the two oftentimes experiencing a bit of a down crop while the other has shined (for example, football signed the No. 4 class nationally in 2017 but basketball's checked in at just No. 39, while the latter inked the No. 11 haul in 2018 but the former just the No. 24 class, etc.).
Michigan's Three Best Combined Football/Basketball Recruiting Cycles of the Last 10 Years:
2012
• Football rank: No. 8
• Basketball rank: No. 7
• Average national rank: 7.5
2013
• Football rank: No. 5
• Basketball rank: No. 12
• Average national rank: 8.5
2020
• Football rank: No. 11
• Basketball rank: No. 13
• Average national rank: 12
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