The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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COMMITMENT PROFILE "One of the issues I think out here is the area we live in," he said. "We're in northeastern Pennsylvania, 10 minutes from the New Jersey border, an hour from Philadelphia. Any kid who doesn't play in Philly, especially if you're not in the near suburbs, I don't think you get the same level of respect. Scouting services and gurus will tell you, 'There's no good bas- ketball up there. They don't play any- body.' I think that kind of permeates through the thinking of high-level programs." Abdur-Rahkman didn't play high- level AAU ball until last year, either, when he joined Team Final out of Philadelphia. He had his moments with the club, but his biggest offers were still only from VCU and Rice. That changed when the Wolverines offered. Michigan's presentation was exactly what Abdur-Rahkman was looking for, his father said. "Having been around the game a long time and recruited people my- self at various levels, I was impressed with the way the process went," he said. "It's not how they showed us the facilities, the pomp and circum- stance and all that, but the way they do business, the type of people they have. We know Michigan is good and in the Big Ten, but what's next is try- ing to find out what the people are like. "Coach Beilein was respectful from the first call. He's a class act and a quality guy. I'm a people person, a longtime Army guy. I know people, and he's surrounded himself with people like himself. These are charac- ter people, and that's more important than anything. "My son has been recruited and has a lot of scholarship offers and has met so many coaches and people, but we were enamored and blown away from beginning to end by Coach Beilein and his staff." In his son, Michigan will get a "mild-mannered kid" who is "ex- actly what they're looking for in their guards at Michigan," he added. "He's a guard who can dribble the ball, pen- etrate and finish, flush on people — he's 6-4, long, wiry and tough." He's got a midrange game and played a version of the offense U-M runs, he added, though not nearly as detailed. Rivals.com recruiting analyst Eric Bossi caught Abdur-Rahkman during AAU ball last summer playing with Team Final. "I liked his length, and it looked like he could create some offense, but he was a little weak and I had a question about his shot," Bossi said. "I wrote down, 'possible mid-major type.' "Then, I found a game from his se- nior season online. In that game it looks like he can handle it a bit, is fairly athletic and can really shoot the ball. … "The game I was able to find, he looked pretty good. I'm kind of sur- prised he hasn't been gobbled up by an A-10 team already based on the one recent game film I've been able to see." Michigan fans hope the Atlan- tic 10's loss will be U-M's gain. — Chris Balas