Two Michigan basketball recruiting signees go out as champions

Different Michigan basketball coaches have looked for varying characteristics over the years in their recruits. Almost all of them, though, value one trait: 

They like winners. 

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The Michigan four-man 2022 recruiting class features a quartet who have done plenty of winning over their careers. Two of them — Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Calvary Christian Academy forward Gregg Glenn and Fairfax (Va.) Paul VI point guard Dug McDaniel — ended their career as champions. 

On March 5, Glenn led Calvary Christian to the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) Class 4A state championship. His squad posted a 74-58 victory over Andrew Jackson, a team riding a 23-game winning streak heading into the game. He notched a game-high 19 points, seven rebounds, four steals and two blocks and earned an automatic berth into the new ESPN State Championships Invitational in Orlando, Florida next month. 

Glenn and his Eagles team reportedly led from start to finish at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland to capture the title.

“My mindset today was to go hard,” Glenn told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “This was my last high school game and I wanted to win the state championship.”

MaxPreps.com’s No. 4 team in the nation, Calvary Christian went 5-1 vs. teams ranked in the Top 40 nationally. Head coach Cilk McSweeney knew everyone would be gunning for his squad last year, but Glenn (6-7, 215, On3.com’s No. 134 player nationally) rose to the occasion when it mattered most. 

“This year was different because we weren’t the new kids on the block,” McSweeney said. “We had done a lot of damage last year and we added Brenen Lorient, who moved from Ocala, into the mix, so that obviously made us even better.

“Gregg overcame the wrist injury from the summer, and we were able to get him back.  [But] we were everybody’s bullseye. We knew every game was going to be a dogfight, and we had a chance to win every game no matter who we were playing.”

In the Washington (D.C.) area, McDaniel carried his Paul VI team to a title in the loaded Washington Catholic Athletic Conference tournament. The Washington Post lauded his unselfishness in a game in which he scored 12 points — the leading scorer — in a 43-42 victory over Bishop McNamara.

“Dug McDaniel had waited a long time for this,” they wrote. “With his team trailing Bishop McNamara by one in the closing seconds of the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference tournament championship game, the Paul VI senior dribbled near midcourt and surveyed the defense. The play was designed to get him going toward the hoop for the last shot, to have the Panthers’ long-held hopes for a conference title in the hands of their battle-tested star.

“But as McDaniel entered a crowded lane and the clock ticked under five seconds, he realized the moment did not have to be his alone. He dumped the ball down to the block, where freshman Jaquan Womack was waiting. Womack fought through two defenders and banked the ball high off the backboard. It fell through, and McDaniel fell to the court, covering his face with an elbow, hiding his reaction to Monday night’s 43-42 victory from the world.”

His teammate thought so much of him that he didn’t even want to talk about his heroics.

“I did it for him,” Womack said of McDaniel. “The only senior on this team. No one was expecting him to be the one to get the championship. I can’t imagine a better game to send him off with.”

The Panthers won their first WCAC title since 2014 as a result. They’d entered with more talented teams in the past, but this one found a way. They were led all year by the 5-11, 167-pound McDaniel, On3.com’s No. 72 player nationally.

McDamniel is known more as a passer and bucket-getter than a shooter. That said, he reportedly shot 41 percent behind the arc this year in adding to his arsenal. 

“This is the Panthers’ first WCAC title since 2014, breaking a skid in which they stacked their roster with talent but ultimately came up short,” the Post added. “Before McDaniel, there was a parade of celebrated guards patrolling the Paul VI backcourt, many of whom are now starring in the college ranks. But none of them had been able to cradle the WCAC championship trophy and get swarmed by friends and family members looking for a picture.”

He couldn’t stop smiling, they reported, and you could understand why. 

“I’ve been here four years, and the greats before me haven’t been able to do this,” McDaniel said. “I wanted this for them. I wanted to bring one home.”

McDaniel was the only player to finish in double digits for Paul VI, which finished its season 26-4.