The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Wednesday, September 30, 2020 — 17
Will Tschetter leads a simple life.
He lives on his family farm in
the rural outskirts of Stewartville,
Minn., a community of roughly
6,000 people. He doesn’t have social
media. Basketball is his passion,
but farm work comes first; he once
instructed Juwan Howard to call
him back so he could finish hauling
the day’s load of rocks.
Perhaps it’s fitting then that
a mid-summer visit to an empty
campus convinced Tschetter to
commit to Michigan.
“To be able to see the city of
Ann Arbor and get the vibe of the
campus in general was super cool,”
Tschetter said. “It was weird, but
also kind of like a normal visit.”
This past March, the COVID-19
pandemic tilted the world of college
basketball recruiting along its axis.
The NCAA enacted a recruiting
dead period on April 1, which
has since been extended through
December. In-person recruiting and
official on-campus visits, the usual
staples of a player’s recruitment, are
forbidden.
So Tschetter forged his own
visit, making the nine-hour drive to
Ann Arbor alongside his mom over
Fourth of July weekend. Campus
was barren, devoid of student life.
They viewed buildings from the
outside only. Howard and associate
head coach Phil Martelli chimed in
as de facto tour guides via FaceTime.
Absent were the bells and
whistles, like front-row seats at the
Big House or a serenade at Crisler
Center. But none of that mattered
to Tschetter. He was sold, letting
Howard know of his decision that
Sunday night before announcing
publicly the following day.
Choosing
Michigan
marked
the culmination of a whirlwind
recruitment for Tschetter, one that
saw him ascend from the depths
of the unknown to the top of high-
major programs’ wishlists.
Yet Tschetter’s rise comes as
no surprise to those who have
witnessed his talent firsthand.
“You’d walk into an open gym
and you’d watch him, all the tools,
all the intangibles were there,”
Brad Vaught, an assistant coach at
Stewartville High School said. “I’ve
coached DI power forwards and I
felt like Will was a high-major kid.”
Vaught
joined
Stewartville’s
staff last fall. At his prior gig —
an assistant coaching position at
Marshall High School in Rochester,
Minn. — Vaught coached Matthew
Hurt, a 6-foot-9 power forward
who started 22 games last year as
a freshman for Duke. Instantly,
Vaught believed Hurt and Tschetter
were comparable.
The recruiting front, though,
remained quiet. Tschetter held
offers from South Dakota, Northern
Iowa, Division II Augustana College
and North Dakota State, his parents’
alma mater. Any high-major interest
was muted.
“I remember watching him play
and thinking, ‘Hey, wait a minute,
why doesn’t he have more offers?’ ”
Vaught said. “That was my thought
— Where is everybody?”
Last season, Tschetter shined.
As a high school junior, he led
the state of Minnesota in scoring,
averaging 33.6 points per game to go
along with 10.8 rebounds. Interest
ticked up a bit — he added offers
from Colorado State and Loyola-
Chicago — but not significantly.
Programs were perhaps suspect of
the competition level in Minnesota
Class AA basketball and AAU
tournaments that weren’t shoe-
sponsored.
Tschetter
and
his
parents
compiled a highlight tape. Vaught
surfed recruiting websites and
contacted every Division I program
whose information he could find,
sending over the film via email.
Willie Vang, Tschetter’s AAU coach
on the Minnesota Heat, compiled all
the information on a spreadsheet:
who they contacted, who responded
and who Tschetter had interest in.
The proactive approach paid
dividends. In April, Tschetter’s
recruitment exploded.
“Watching his skill on tape, go
figure, schools started calling,”
Adam Girtman, Tschetter’s head
coach at Stewartville, said. “With
the AAU season being shut down,
schools started asking for tape
and more tape. It just kind of
snowballed.”
Offers poured in from mid-
majors throughout April. On May
27, Arkansas became the first
power-five program to extend an
offer. Three Big Ten schools —
Michigan, Nebraska and Minnesota
— did the same on June 1. Virginia
Tech, Iowa and Cincinnati followed
suit soon after.
Tschetter’s individual ranking
soared as well, as he cracked the
top 150 in 247Sports’ composite
rankings for 2021 prospects.
“All of a sudden, everyone started
to say, ‘Oh wow, this kid’s 6-8, shoots
45 percent from three, is strong
as an ox,’ ” Vaught said. “When
everybody started to see it, then it
didn’t take much for people to want
him to be a part of things.
“If you have the ability and the
skillset, somebody’s gonna find
you.”
This was all occurring, of course,
amid the backdrop of the pandemic.
Competition was shelved, high
school seasons and AAU circuits
truncated. There would be no more
games for Tschetter to prove his
worth, or for coaches to evaluate his
talent in person.
Recruiting
too
was
flipped
upside down, the industry moving
entirely online almost overnight.
Schools would have to find a way to
sell themselves through a computer
screen.
Zoom calls quickly inundated
Tschetter’s schedule: chats with
coaches,
film
sessions,
virtual
campus tours. Out of all the schools
in his pursuit, Tschetter says
Michigan was “most consistent”
in reaching out. Martelli led the
charge, connecting with Tschetter
on a daily basis. The rest of the
staff — Howard, Saddi Washington
and Howard Eisley — checked in
weekly.
“One
of
the
things
that
separated
Michigan
was
they
did an unbelievable job of being
organized,”
Vang
said.
“With
some of these schools they’ll just
call and offer, and it’s kind of a
brief phone call and you might
not even hear from them for quite
a while. Michigan had multiple
conversations that were really long,
really detailed.”
“The coaching staff and the
culture that they’ve built really
stood out,” Tschetter said. “They
were really genuine throughout the
process, super trustworthy.”
Tschetter’s commitment is a
testament to Howard’s holistic
recruiting style. With Tschetter,
Michigan’s
pitch
extended
beyond basketball, encompassing
everything
from
a
“Michigan
college experience” to academics —
a particularly important aspect for
Tschetter, an honors student who
holds a 3.99 GPA.
“The neat thing about Juwan is
he really kind of has the big picture
in mind,” Vaught said. “He didn’t
just see him as a player, but as a
person.”
In terms of a basketball fit,
Tschetter is what Vang calls “the
definition of what basketball’s about
now.” At 6-foot-8, 230 pounds, he
punishes opponents inside and
out, equipped with an array of
post moves and a deadeye 3-point
stroke. He runs a 4.6 40-yard dash
and was recruited to play tight end
by Minnesota and Michigan State
under Mark Dantonio. Girtman
describes him as a mismatch for
anyone on the floor.
And even with the twists and
turns of an unorthodox recruitment,
he wound up where he belongs.
“You can’t argue that (the
pandemic) hurt Will’s recruitment,”
Girtman said. “The only thing I
think it did was delay those big
schools
offering.
Those
were
inevitable.
They
were
coming
anyway, it just took a little longer.”
“Being able to take official visits
and that stuff, I think it definitely
would’ve been different,” Tschetter
said of his decision. “But I feel totally
comfortable with my choice.”
Will Tschetter’s unconventional road to Michigan
PHOTO COURTESY OF KASEY MORLOCK
Class of 2021 prospect Will Tschetter committed to Michigan after a self-guided visit over the summer.
JARED GREENSPAN
Daily Sports Writer
Ybarra, Osman leading
through difficult time
Leaders need to be able to
adapt
to
whatever
situation
comes about, no matter how
grave or difficult.
The Michigan men’s soccer
team’s
season
is
currently
suspended, with a possible start
date in the spring. For its players,
the potential cancellation or
further postponement of a season
feels like a rock in their stomachs.
But Wolverine captains Umar
Farouk Osman and Marc Ybarra
have a different narrative for
themselves and the team.
Michigan and other athletic
programs across the country
are facing an extraordinarily
difficult
situation.
Yet,
led
by Osman and Ybarra, the
Wolverines
have
persevered
and stayed motivated through
these peculiar times. During the
offseason, even prior to their
return to campus, Osman and
Ybarra made a concerted effort to
set an example that would trickle
down to the younger players.
“Before we started preseason,
we had Zoom sessions every week
to help with mental preparation,”
Osman said. “The coaches gave
us videos so that we were all on
the same page and that we all
understand the philosophy of
the team so we have the same
mindset.”
For Ybarra, the difficulty
of
not
playing
during
this
unprecedented time is amplified
by the fact that all of the players
on the team were physically
and mentally preparing for the
team’s season over the summer.
In August, it was extremely
tough to hear that the season was
postponed. Ybarra said the team
is now preparing for a season in
the spring, hopefully, with the
NCAA Tournament moved from
April 30 to May 17, 2021.
For the Wolverines, leadership
is of the utmost importance.
“We are trying to create a
driven culture, and it comes
from the captains on the team,
so we try our best to make sure
the freshman feel comfortable,”
Osman said. “We are all on
the same mindset that we are
here to work hard every single
day, challenging ourselves and
holding each other accountable
in practice.”
According to Ybarra, there is
a certain culture on the team to
which the freshman are easily
assimilating.
“A
lot
of
it
is
internal.
We
haven’t
had
explicit
conversations with these players.
They just came in excited and
ready to go and a lot of them
are playing really well,” Ybarra
said. “The freshmen have been
doing a really good job being
smart, being safe. It’s definitely a
different time to acclimate to the
university, but I think the fact
that we’ve had regular training is
hopeful to give them a routine.”
JIMMY HEFTER
For The Daily
FILE PHOTO/Daily
Led by Osman and Ybarra, Michigan has stayed motivated through the pandemic.
Harrison Brown’s journey from
Queensland to Michigan
When he was about 10 years
old, Michigan senior Harrison
Brown began playing at a
tennis center called Griffith
University
in
Queensland,
Australia. For two years he
stayed there, training three
hours in the evening — two
hours of tennis and one hour
of fitness. From there, he
made the move to the national
academy in Brisbane where he
trained for another two years,
from ages 12 to 14.
In around late July to early
August in his final year in
Australia, he received an email
from Andrew Stubbs, a coach
from
Montverde
Academy
in the Orlando area, offering
him a full scholarship to play
there. Brown didn’t know what
to expect when he decided to
make the move to the United
States right before his fifteenth
birthday.
“I had no idea when the
school year was in America,”
Brown said. “I’ve only ever
known Australia, you start
school in January, finish in
December.”
He knew going to Montverde
was the right move for him
because he wanted to go to
college, but still, he weighed
the pros and cons before
making a decision.
The major downside for him
was that at 14 years-old he
would be moving away from
home and his family for the
first time. At the same time, he
also saw this as an advantage
because it helped him become
more independent.
“I was happy with that,”
Brown said. “I felt like I didn’t
need to stay at home or be held
back, I guess, from a better
potential in the U.S.”
Montverde
also
offered
him
a
full
scholarship,
something he
didn’t
have
in
Brisbane,
with tougher
competition
and
more
opportunities
to
play
international
tennis
tournaments
in the U.S.
“I feel like
at that time
when I was 14, I was ranked I
think in like the top 10 or 15 in
Australia for my age,” Brown
said. “Then when I moved
to the U.S I was like top 100
basically.”
But
Brown’s
time
at
Montverde didn’t last long.
One
day
in
April
of
his
sophomore year, he was called
to a meeting. The tennis part
of the academy was shutting
down and replaced by a school
team.
“We
never
got
told
exactly why but we had our
speculations and everything,”
Brown said.
This left Brown with a
dilemma.
They
gave
the
students at the academy one of
three options: stay at the school
at Montverde Academy and
practice with the school team
(which was a dramatic drop
in level), go back to Australia
or make the move to Hilton
Head Island,
S.C. to attend
Smith Sterns
Tennis
Academy
and complete
their
schooling
there.
Wanting
to
continue
his
journey
in the U.S.,
Brown chose
to
make
the
move
to Hilton Head to train at
Smith Sterns. He thought it
would also be best for college
recruiting. Once there, Brown
found
the
experience
was
much different than it was in
Orlando.
“When when I went to
Smith Sterns Tennis Academy,
it was in a small neighborhood,
things
were
very
close
together, the beach only took
two minutes or three minutes
to walk to, it was sort of like
an island life,” Brown said. “It
was basically tennis, school,
sleep, like that. It was very
disciplined and you didn’t
really have as much of a choice
of social things to do.”
During the time Brown
was at Smith Sterns, his
play improved significantly,
and at the end of his junior
year he started to talk to
college coaches and began
the recruiting process. He
was driven both academically
and in tennis, and decided he
wanted to go to a college that
was in the top 25 for both.
He
began
talking
to
Michigan
coach
Adam
Steinberg, and the assistant
coach
at
the
time,
Sean
Maymi, and throughout the
summer of his junior year
and start of his senior year,
the coaches came to some of
Brown’s tournaments to watch
him compete.
“I played well and we
stayed in contact and they
kept watching me for all my
results,” Brown said. “Then I
had a bit of a breakthrough in
November or December of my
senior year.”
In February of 2017, he got
an offer from the Wolverines.
He talked to his coaches, and
unanimously they encouraged
him to accept the offer and
attend Michigan.
“I gotta go here,” Brown
said. “Hearing that from every
coach is pretty special.”
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Senior Harrison Brown earned his offer from Michigan tennis coach Adam Steinberg in February 2017, following a string of strong performances.
MADELINE STONE-WHEATLEY
For The Daily
I had a bit of a
breakthrough in
November or
December of my
senior year.