Michigan Basketball head coach Juwan Howard appeared on the Jim Rome radio show with guest hosts Jason and Randy Sklar, and talked about the recruitment of 17 year-old Franz Wagner who is currently contemplating playing for Michigan or Alba Berlin in his native Germany next season.
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Unfortunately, that’s an NCAA violation, because it’s against the rules for coaches to publicly discuss unsigned recruits.
“There’s a piece out there that people at Michigan know, Franz Wagner, Moe Wagner’s little brother who’s out in Germany,” one of the Sklar brothers said. The two are a comedy duo whose time as Michigan students overlapped with Howard.
“Feel free to announce that he is going to commit to Michigan right here on the air. If you want to, you can. How hard are you working that situation to try to get a guy like that in?”
“Our communication has been great,” Howard said. “Right now, he is making a decision if he is going to play with his national team to represent his country in the (FIBA) World Cup championship tournament. I highly recommend that he does. That’s a chance of a lifetime.”
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He did tell the Sklar brothers, “I don’t know if I’m allowed to say his name because of the NCAA rules.”
“You aren’t,” one of the brothers responded. “I said it. We said it. You didn’t say his name.”
Howard’s answer violated NCAA bylaw 13.10.2.1. “Generally speaking, NCAA rules only allow for a coach to confirm that the school is recruiting a specific prospect when asked, unless that prospect has signed an official offer of admission or financial aid,” an NCAA spokesperson told MLive on Wednesday.
