The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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2016 BASKETBALL RECRUITING ISSUE diately," Beilein said. "He's got the skill level, athleticism, a jump shot and a great attitude. Hopefully he'll help us right away. "He can play the two or three … I think he could play some off guard." It took former Wolverine and cur- rent Atlanta Hawks guard Tim Hard- away Jr. a few years before he was able to do that, but Watson appears to be following the same path. The only difference between off guard and wing, Beilein added, is that one of the two gets in the lane a little bit more, but Hardaway and former Wolver- ines Nik Stauskas and Caris LeVert all were able to do that. "Like most guys, when you have a skinny body, you're not necessar- ily looking to get in there where it's rough and tough inside," Beilein said. "Down the stretch for Pickerington, he was averaging 11 rebounds per game for them, so he can do a lot of things. "He's got a really high ceiling. He's more than a shooter right now. He might have been labeled 'just a shooter' coming into his senior year, but he is so much more right now." Watson scored 20 points in his South team's win over the North in the Ohio North-South All-Star game held in April, many of them off the dribble drive. On the other end, North point guard Simpson added 18 in the 136-111 setback, though he was 0 of 4 from three-point range. Shooting has been the knock on the 5-11 standout, but that's about the only area in which pundits question Simpson. He earned AP Player of the Year honors for Division I, Ohio's Mr. Basketball award and averaged 27.2 points, 6.1 assists and 3.8 steals per game as a senior at Lima Senior. The Spartans, coached by his father, Quincey Simpson, entered the state championship game with a 29-0 re- cord before falling 57-55 to Wester- ville South in the finale. Simpson, Rivals.com's No. 86 se- nior nationally, scored 17 points in the contest and also earned Gatorade's Ohio Player of the Year honor. "I can't believe that there is a player in Ohio that is more important to his team's success than Xavier Simpson," Findlay (Ohio) High head coach Jim Rucki said after the announcement. "He makes everyone around him a better player. He is a true point guard. He keeps his team under control and is a coach on the floor. "He can be a great scorer when he needs to be, but he has an uncanny ability to give his teammates the ball right where they need it. He is the best player in Ohio." But he almost wasn't Michigan's future point guard. Beilein and his staff had targeted Detroit U-D Jesuit's Cassius Winston, Rivals.com's No. 28 senior nationally, and seemed to be in the driver 's seat. When Win- ston called to reschedule his official visit, however, he was told U-M had another prospect available at his po- sition and they needed an answer sooner than later. Winston later tweeted that Mich- igan was "no longer an option for him" after U-M chose to go a different direction. Days later, the Wolverines