Canes basketball lands two top-60 recruits, two others. And football recruiting update
A six-pack of Miami Hurricanes notes on a Wednesday:
▪ The Miami Hurricanes basketball program, off to a 1-0 start and emerging from a three-year malaise, firmed up a very strong 2022 recruiting class on Wednesday by snagging four-star Forestville, Maryland-based center Favour Aire and getting signed pledges from Aire and three other players who previously committed.
247Sports.com rated UM’s 2022 class the 17th best in the nation and best in Florida. This class — combined with a strong 2021 class — is expected to be the lynchpin to return UM to the type of success it experienced earlier in coach Jim Larranaga’s tenure.
UM made the NCAA Tournament four times in his first seven seasons as coach (including two Sweet 16 appearances) before numerous injuries and other factors contributed to losing records the past three seasons.
The 6-11 Aire, rated the 59th-best Class of 2022 player by Rivals, chose UM over Georgetown and Rutgers. A native of Nigeria, he was widely rated as the fourth-best prospect in Maryland
“Favour is an outstanding talent,” Larranaga said. “He’s a big guy with tremendous ball skills; he can shoot the three, put the ball on the ground and post up. He has an excellent jump hook. Defensively, he’s an exceptional rebounder and shot-blocker.”
Aire joins a strong 2022 class headlined by himself and four-star Chicago-based power forward AJ Casey, a 6-8 prospect who’s rated by Rivals as the No. 55 player in the 2022 class. Casey signed with UM on Wednesday.
UM previously beat out Memphis, Ohio State, Michigan, DePaul and Gonzaga for Casey.
“AJ plays in a very tough high school league in Chicago. He’s also played against the best players in the Nike EYBL events,” Larrañaga said. “His size, athletic ability and versatility allow him to be very efficient both inside and outside on offense, as well as very flexible on defense.”
UM also has binding commitments from two three-star wings: Greenfield, Wisconsin-based swing forward Danilo Jovanovich and Washington D.C.-based small forward Christian Watson.
The 6-6 Jovanovich, who attended the same high school as Heat guard Tyler Herro, picked UM previously over Wake Forest, Southern Cal, DePaul, Penn State and Illinois. ESPN rates him the No. 31 power forward in this class.
“Danilo is clever player who has a lot of craftiness in his game. As a left-hander, he’s really good in around the basket,” Larrañaga said. “He’s an excellent driver, but he’s also a terrific passer and he really does a great job of finding the open man. He was very much a glue guy for his AAU team, Phenom U, and that’s something we’ll want him to be at Miami.”
Watson, 6-7, chose UM over Georgetown and Marquette and is rated by Rivals as the 45th-best small forward in this class.
“Christian is a high-octane, multifaceted offense player,” Larranaga said. “He can play the one, the two or the three. He can shoot the three and he can drive it to the basket.
“He has played in the best high school basketball league in the country, in Washington, D.C., the WCAC. He has played against some of the best players in the country and has proven himself to be a very efficient player.”
▪ As for UM football, the Canes still don’t have a single commitment from a South Florida player in the 2022 class. They haven’t landed a commitment from any 2022 recruit since mid-August.
The good news is that the Canes had excellent recruiting classes the past two years — Rivals rated UM’s past two classes 13th and 10th nationally — so there’s still time to rally.
UM is in the mix for several high-end 2022 prospects, including Miami Central linebacker Wesley Bissainthe (could be a UM-FSU battle), Miami Gardens Monsignor Pace defensive end Shemar Stewart (UM, Texas A&M and Georgia are the finalists but Texas A&M is the front-runner, according to Canesport) and Fort Lauderdale Dillard defensive lineman Nyjalik Kelly, a former FSU commit who also is considering Oregon, Georgia, LSU and Miami.
The Canes aren’t considered a front-runner for three other top local prospects — four-star Plantation American Heritage defensive end Marvin Jones Jr; five-star Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas offensive tackle Julian Armella and four-star American Heritage cornerback Earl Little.
This would be the lowest-rated Canes class in ages if it doesn’t improve. Miami’s group of eight nonbinding commitments is rated 61st by 247 Sports (just ahead of San Diego State and Coastal Carolina) and 60th by Rivals (just ahead of East Carolina).
▪ UM’s 13 attempts on fourth down are 31st most in the country, a statistic that’s skewed because it includes no-brainer fourth-down attempts when teams are trailing late.
UM ranks 61st in fourth-down conversion success at 53.8 percent (7 of 13).
What’s clear is that Manny Diaz has decided that going for it on fourth and short earlier in the game is often a good gamble.
“We’re big into a lot of the analytics” and analytics suggest going for it on fourth down in certain situations, Diaz told WQAM’s Joe Zagacki and Don Bailey Jr.
Diaz likened it to baseball: “Every time you punt, you choose to end an inning. If you convert a fourth down, you keep an opportunity to score. Teams converted fourth-and-1 at a 70 percent clip last decade. We were excellent in those situations before” the Georgia Tech game.
▪ I asked Diaz on Wednesday this: If a young player and senior are comparable in quality and performance, would Diaz now favor giving time to the young player to dissuade them from transferring after the season?
“If they’re comparable in quality, they [the young players] would be playing,” he said. “Seniority doesn’t matter. If they’re worthy of snaps, they get snaps. But if they aren’t, they can’t because then you lose the locker room. [Then players would say], ‘They’re playing this guy to keep him happy.’ And that’s not fair.”
The fact UM has given more playing time to freshmen during the past five weeks is mostly a byproduct of them outplaying older players. But it also comes with the upshot of incentivizing them to stick around.
When Thad Franklin finally got a shot last week ahead of fellow freshman running back Cody Brown, it wasn’t because UM was trying to keep Franklin happy. It’s because UM wasn’t happy with how Brown looked in his first carry.
▪ One of the pleasant surprises of the season has been Jaylan Knighton demonstrating that he’s far more than just a change-of-pace, third-down back.
His body has withstood 70 carries (for 325 yards) during the past three weeks. That’s a solid 4.6 average.
“He’s got great acceleration through the hole,” Diaz told Zagacki and Bailey Jr. this week. “That’s the thing that stands out. When he’s really patient and allows the blocks to form, he’s able to see the holes and once he sees them, that acceleration is what is [getting] him through to the second level. We’re not big into running out of bounds at Miami. We want to fight for extra yards and he’s done a great job of that.”
▪ Quick stuff: With safety Bubba Bolden out for the season, linebacker Waymon Steed is now UM’s leading tackler with 43.
“Waymon is playing really well,” Diaz told WQAM’s Hurricane Hotline. ‘Waymon is a good player. He’s been through a lot [with knee injuries], been a battle with Keontra Smith [at weak-side linebacker]. When teams want to run the football, Waymon is as good as a guy as we’ve had here since Michael Pinckney. Waymon is physical, is in the right spot.”....
Diaz loves how UM now has an offense where “you can go with all five eligible weapons and create a problem for the other side of the ball.” With the starting group, those five are Charleston Rambo, Key’Shawn Smith, Mike Harley Jr., Knighton and Will Mallory, who announced Wednesday that he’s returning for 2022. Knighton and Smith aren’t draft eligible and are also expected back….
Against FSU on Saturday, UM must contend with Jermaine Johnson, a Georgia transfer who has 11 tackles for loss and eight sacks, and end Keir Thomas, a South Carolina transfer, who has nine tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks...
ESPN assigned Mark Jones and former NFL quarterback and rookie analyst Robert Griffin III to Saturday’s 3:30 p.m. telecast… The start time and TV network for the Nov. 20 home finale against Virginia Tech will be determined Saturday night.
This story was originally published November 10, 2021 at 5:00 PM.
