Michigan basketball offers a pair of 2024 targets
Michigan head basketball coach Juwan Howard is in New York with son Jett and sophomore Kobe Bufkin for NBA Draft night, but he’s still putting in the work on the recruiting trail. He recently offered two more recruits from the 2024 class, a big man in Patrick Ngongba and a shooting guard in Billy Richmond.
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Ngongba, from Fairfax (Va.) Paul VI Catholic (same school as Michigan sophomore Dug McDaniel), averaged 17 points and 10 rebounds in Nike EYBL Session IV to earn offers from several schools, Duke among them. He’s already taken official visits to Providence and Kansas State. Iowa, Virginia, and several others are involved.
“I want to go to a school that has a good culture as we do here at PVI, a winning culture,” Ngongba said. “I’ll want to play for a coach who will develop me and help me get ready to play at the next level. I want to look at the systems and styles of play too, make sure the coaches run plays for their bigs and play through their bigs.”
An EYBL scouting report from Kentucky Sports Report:
“Patrick Ngongba was arguably the most impressive frontcourt prospect at EYBL Session 4 … the 6-10 big man looked like a guy who should be much higher in the national rankings,” they wrote. “On Sunday he had a breakout performance of 33 points, 18 rebounds, and five assists, doing a little bit of everything on the offensive end. He scores it in the post with both hands, started the break after rebounding the ball, and was 4-5 from three-point range on the weekend.”
Memphis, Tenn.’s Richmond also impressed at EYBL, per KSR.
“Despite being ranked “just” No. 77 in the On3 Industry Ranking, the 6-6 guard outplayed many of those ranked ahead of him,” KSR reported. “Richmond was efficient from the field, rebounded at a high level, and showed off some game-changing defensive ability.
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“The NJ Scholars star averaged 20.6 points and 7.6 rebounds per game on the weekend in Memphis. He is incredibly long and athletic, an excellent driver, and one of the elite transition threats in the country. In Session 4 he showed off the ability to act as a secondary playmaker in the half-court. Richmond played off of ballscreens and looked comfortable creating his own shot off of the dribble.”
But he’s not a shooter. He made only 2-for-9 from deep at the Memphis tourney and was 7-28 overall this spring on the EYBL Circuit.
Richmond holds offers from Kentucky, Memphis, and others.
“It’ll probably be right before high school season in October,” Richmond said of a decision. “I’m going to take visits next month. I’m going to try and set them up.”
He describes himself as a “junkyard dog” type player.
“A lot of coaches tell me that I need to be on-ball more and do more in the pick-and-roll,” he said. “I need to bring the ball down more and be more of a point guard. I get rebounds, loose balls. I can get a bucket at will and get my teammates involved.”
Michigan will have to get the two on campus to have a shot.
