The Wolverine

BASKETBALL RECRUITING ring to the new NCAA rules allowing players to take official visits starting Jan. 1 of their junior year. "But the way I'm looking at it, probably my senior year." AUSTIN HATCH RECLASSIFIES • Fort Wayne (Ind.) Canterbury standout and Michigan class of 2013 pledge Austin Hatch, rehabbing from a 2011 plane crash that claimed the lives of his father and stepmother, will stay in high school an extra year, WANE-TV reported. Hatch received a special waiver from the Indiana High School Athletic Association and will try to play two more years of high school ball. Hatch had not yet been cleared to play competitive basketball as of this summer. He'll have work to do, obvi- ously, to become the caliber recruit he was when he averaged 23.3 points per game in his sophomore year and accepted an offer from Michigan head coach John Beilein. U-M will honor Hatch's schol- arship whether or not he's able to regain the form that earned him a scholarship as a sophomore. He did not play in 2011-12 while recovering from head injuries suffered in the crash. Canterbury's athletics director re- portedly wrote a letter to Indiana's governing body for high school ath- letics to request a special exemption of a "redshirt year," and received an unprecedented ruling. • Michigan's remaining three-man CLASS OF 2013 NOTEBOOK: class of Harper Woods (Mich.) Chan- dler Park Academy point guard Der- rick Walton, Whitehouse (Ohio) An- thony Wayne forward Mark Donnal and Fishers (Ind.) Hamilton South- eastern wing Zak Irvin is currently ranked No. 6 in the country by Ri- vals.com. In the individual rankings, Irvin (6-6) checks in at No. 31 overall, Walton is No. 44 and Donnal is No. 104. Irvin and Walton both visited for U-M's Sept. 8 football weekend with Air Force and plan to be back for the Oct. 20 MSU weekend. "The Wolverines continue to load up their roster with high-level tal- ent," Rivals.com wrote. "Irvin's game has taken a huge leap over the last year ,and he's a versatile wing with terrific size. Walton is one of the toughest playmakers in the country, and Donnal gives them a big man at the school for 14 years and has seen some great post players come and go — not only at his school, but in surrounding areas — yet he's never observed one so polished at such a young age. "He is the best post player at this age I've seen," Herting said. "I've seen guys who are more coveted re- cruits — a guy like Nerlens Noel [the No. 2 national prospect in the class of 2012] — but Ricky is a much bet- ter post player. Noel is obviously a freak athlete, probably the eventual first pick in the NBA Draft, and I'm not saying Ricky is a guy you would take over him. "But in terms of post play and how Hatch, a U-M commit who is rehabbing from injuries suffered in a 2011 plane crash, received a special waiver from the Indiana High School Athletic Association that will allow him to play two more years of high school ball. PHOTO COURTESY RIVALS.COM to host class of 2013 big man Reg- gie Cameron (6-8, Rivals.com's No. 84 senior nationally) the weekend of Sept. 15, but decided against it. The Paterson (N.J.) Hudson Catho- lic shooter has since committed to Georgetown. It seems unlikely U-M will add an- with skill and a body on which to build." • The coaches had initially planned other player to the three-man 2013 class unless something opens up in the spring. hit the Midwest hard in recruiting over the last few years, but that hasn't prevented them from taking a peek nationally, too. Junior guard Tim Hardaway Jr., for one, came to Michigan from Miami, while point guard Darius Morris (2008-10) made the trek to Ann Arbor from Los An- geles. Another warm-weather cli- mate prospect has entered the scene, this one a class of 2014 big man from Fort Myers (Fla.) Bishop Verot. At 6-9, 235 pounds, Ricky Doyle is just scratching the surface of his potential. He just turned 16 years old in May, yet he plays with the court presence of a senior, not a junior. Head coach Matt Herting has been BIG MAN TARGET EMERGES Michigan basketball coaches have NEW CLASS OF 2014 to play the game at the five spot, he's as good as I've seen for a high school kid as far as being polished, under- standing the game and involving others. "He's a great back-to-the-basket player, and I mean great. He's very good with either hand. He's aggres- sive, but he's not selfish in the post. He's really good feeling a double team and kicking it out, really good giving it up when he doesn't have anything and sealing for the reversal, all those things. He is only going to continue to improve over the next two years." Doyle averaged around 13 points and seven rebounds per game as a sophomore for a 22-8 Bishop Verot squad, doing most of his damage close to the basket. He comes from a basketball family — his dad spent a short time with the Detroit Pistons before playing overseas — and he's a good athlete for his size. He might get undersold due to his physique, Herting noted — "He's a big, gangly young kid with a size 18 shoe and a 7-2 wing span" — but he can get off the floor ,and he runs the floor well. Doyle earned looks from several programs this summer while play- ing with his high school team on the AAU circuit. "I think that was really good for Ricky because we run all our stuff, which is really post oriented," Hert- ing said. "Even in those games, most things revolve around him to some extent. It's not so guard oriented as some other teams are. He gets a lot of touches playing with us compared to if he played with a big travel group. "He has a really good understand- ing of playing with nine other guys OCTOBER 2012 THE WOLVERINE 75

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