Harold Baruti '16 in on his way to an OV at UM

It’s being reported on the WVU board that Harold Baruti is reopening his recruitment. A guy that is generally “in the know” there, thinks he got a high TOEFL test and could be UM bound. Says it’s per speculation at but he is the “MattD” of their board with regards to knowledge of recruiting.

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He’s quite raw, so I don’t see him helping much this season. At that point then, is he a better prospect than some of the guys we are in on for 2017? We seem to be in pretty good shape with Matthews and Cain (although we’ve seen how these situations are fluid). If Baruti is a 3 (or 3/4 tweener), I’m not sure if he is a take at this point.

I would certainly prioritize Matthews ahead of Baruti. Only reason to take Baruti is if you think he can make an impact this year that makes him worth taking. Because I don’t think anyone would say he’s a better prospect than someone like Jamal Cain or Justin Smith.

Just starting to get nervous at the lack of (known) grad transfer options. If we go 2016, the Baruti type seems like the most likely pickup

Yeah, at this point I’m assuming that we won’t be getting a grad transfer, unfortunately.

If we were to take baruti and Matthews, how many scholarships would be available in 17?

2 http://www.umhoops.com/recruiting/scholarship-breakdown/

What’s your take on that point, Dylan? Do you think he could contribute enough to warrant the scholarship position?

And since I understand you might not be in a position to want to answer that, Im curious about what everyone thinks? Lack of grad transfer targets, Matthews, etc.

My guy reaction is that no he’s probably not quite worth an offer especially if you can land Charles Matthews. If not, then maybe you try to get Baruti, but I could go either way.

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What is the story here? Does he have the score or not?[quote=“umhoops, post:184, topic:1797”]
aruti posted a qualifying score on the Test of English as a Foreign Language, but came in below Michigan’s required score.
[/quote]

I guess that he is not an option. Was his offer from Utah conditional on TOEFL as well.

May turn into something amazing, but he would almost have to in order to take a slot from the 17 class where we have a much better set of names than in most prior years at this stage. People have said it before, but the only way this could make sense aside from a LeVert-like diamond in the rough scenario is if he could actually play quality minutes in 16, but those two points are basically saying the same thing. Someone would have to be really really sure on that.

TOEFL or not i’d pass based on what limited info is out there to project with on the guy.

I’d PASS on him.

I think this ship has sailed but in the off chance that we can’t close on Matthews, maybe he’ll get another look.

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Baruti ended up at Washington. Michigan passed here and I think it was the right move, but we’ll see.

Good for him. I think he’ll be a good player for them down the line, just not the immediate impact that we need.

Our team still is really lacking wing depth for this coming season, but I understand why they wouldn’t want to take Baruti and Matthews. Both guys are high level athletes that aren’t very skilled. Passing on Baruti will be judged at least partially by if JB can snag a couple of our top wing targets this year.

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