The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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BASKETBALL RECRUITING Duke, Kentucky, Louisville — we talk to UConn and all those coaches, some more than others," Gary Battle said of his son, Rivals.com's No. 15 junior nationally and a five-star prospect. "What we're doing right now is watching lots of basketball to see how they play, watching the guys they tell us to watch where Tyus could be at that position. We've watched Kentucky, and we saw UConn and Miami — they're pretty good, and there's some great weather down there. "Tyus is very blessed to have some great schools after him. It's just a matter of fit and where he feels com- fortable. He's got some time. He's only a class of 2016 kid. He really doesn't have a timetable, but he's going to start narrowing his list and wait until he's comfortable before he makes a decision." Battle was at Kentucky for its Midnight Madness event and vis- ited Duke in late October. Both vis- its were positives for the respective schools. "Duke — it's Duke," Gary Battle said. "It's a great academic insti- tution, one of the top seven to 10 in the country. From a basketball perspective, it's one of the biggest draws there is with one of the better coaches in the world. "That's a great team this year, eight to nine deep, and they seem to like playing together." The Battles spent a significant amount of time with Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski, and were there for a number of days. They watched practice, a walk through and the team's blue-white game, s a w t h e l o c k e r ro o m a n d t h e coaches' area, and toured the living quarters. Battle was also able to see Duke beat Stanford at the Barclays Center for the Coaches vs. Cancer tournament championship in early November. It all made quite an impression. Michigan, though, also remains high on the list. The Battles talk to the U-M coaches frequently, and Gary Battle and Tank Thornton — the father of class of 2016 point guard Derryck Thornton Jr. (6-1, Ri- vals.com's No. 9 junior nationally) — have talked about the possibility of their sons playing together. "There are a lot of us dads who talk," Gary Battle said. "I'd say there's a good chance at least some of our sons are going to be playing together somewhere." Those close to it believe Duke and Michigan will be the final two on Battle's list, though no timetable has been set. Those could be two final- ists for Thornton, as well. "Coach K takes care of his guys," Tank Thornton said. "The thing about Duke is that they're great, they've made him a priority and we talk to them about three times a week … [coaches] Jon Scheyer, Jeff Capel and Coach K, we talk to all of them. They've been very open about how they see him as a freshman, the role that they see him playing. "They think he can step in from day one and make an impact on the