Incredibly, your breakdown of Ellerbe recruits, as sad as it is, gives him too much credit, in part because you’re apparently including the ‘97 class of Josh Asselin, Brandon Smith and transfer Robbie Reid, all of whom signed with Michigan before Ellerbe was on staff, and were on campus before he became the head coach. Here are the Ellerbe signees, player-by-player, during the time he was head coach:
1998: Leon Jones and Chris Young had both committed to Michigan long before Steve Fisher was fired, and indeed, at least in Young’s case, long before Ellerbe was even on staff. They stayed with their commitments, completed 4 years in the program, and by all accounts, were model citizens. However, one can hardly call them Ellerbe recruits, any more than one could call Cole Bajema a Juwan Howard recruit.
1999: Kevin Gaines, Jamal Crawford, Gavin Groninger, Lavell Blanchard, and Leland Anderson were the signees. IIRC, Gaines had been suspended from his high school team for a game or two, allegedly for disciplinary reasons. Crawford was reportedly suspended by league officials in high school for, I believe, 2 games, not because of the guardianship relationship which was cited by the NCAA, but rather for on-court conduct and temper. Anderson was reportedly despised by his high school teammates. All lasted one season or less at Michigan, Crawford because of an extremely overly harsh NCAA ruling, but after he had allegedly gotten in a physical altercation with an assistant coach, Gaines after a theft allegation (the Palm Pilot incident) followed by a public intoxication and driving incident in the middle of the night (and several other publicly unreported, but allegedly no less real, incidents), and Anderson to transfer after, again, reportedly being disliked by his teammates (Blanchard in particular). The other two lasted 4 years and were fine.
2000: The signees were Avery Queen, Josh Moore, Maurice Searight and Bernard Robinson, Jr. Of these, only BRJ did not have significant issues while in high school (Searight was kicked off his team for a period, Queen was disciplined after he and a teammate allegedly beat a fellow student with a belt, and Moore had allegations of disciplinary issues at several high schools leading to high school transfers). Each of these guys was booted by Tommy, Searight after getting suspended by Ellerbe as a freshman for staying out all Friday night right before a Saturday noon start (I was at that game), and then apparently blowing off team obligations after Tommy came aboard, Moore for alleged academic issues, and Queen after allegedly getting drunk at an early season tournament as a junior. BRJ lasted 4 years, but had a disciplinary issue involving an allegation of unwanted touching by a female student in a stairwell. To be fair to BRJ, Tommy spoke glowingly of his turnaround after that incident.
2001: The signees were Dom Ingerson, Jaquan Hart, Kelly Whitney and Chuck Bailey. Hart and Whitney were non-qualifiers. Ingerson left in his sophomore season after disciplinary issues which included a public screaming match with an assistant coach during the second half of a Big Ten Tournament game. Bailey had no disciplinary issues, but down-transferred because of a lack of playing time.