Miami basketball has trio of four-star prospect visits in September

The Miami basketball program has lined up a trio of visits from four-star recruits in the Class of 2019 for September. The Hurricanes were shut out from signing any high school players in the Class of 2018 after they were implicated in the Adidas scandal.

Jim Larranaga and the Miami basketball staff did a great job making up for the lack of high school recruits with the signing of three transfers. Getting the recruits to commit to visiting in September is important to getting back to signing high-quality high school players.

The Miami basketball program has been extremely successful landing transfers during Larranaga’s tenure with the Hurricanes. The previous two recruiting classes netted three high school All-Americans.

Bruce Brown and Dewan Huell were signed in the Class of 2017 and Lonnie Walker 2018. Walker was a first-round pick of the San Antonio Spurs and Brown went in the second round to the Detroit Pistons in the 2018 NBA Draft.

Trying to get back to that level begins next month. Huell is the only one of those three high-level recruits that returns for the 2018-19 season. Sophomore point guard Chris Lykes was a four-star player who would have been even more highly regarded coming out of high school if he was taller than 5’7.

Six-three Combo guard Anthony Harris, 6’5 shooting guard Donovan Williams and 6’4 shooting guard James Bouknight have scheduled their visits for next month with the Miami basketball program.

Bouknight who attends the MacDuffie School in Grandby, MA will visit the Hurricanes on September 7. The Miami football team plays Savannah State in their home opener a day later. Bouknight is the 94th ranked player in the country, the 14th ranked shooting guard and second best player in Massachusetts.

The three projections on Bouknight thus far from 247Sports all have Bouknight signing with UConn. The Huskies have a new staff led by Danny Hurley after firing Kevin Ollie after the 2017-18 season.

Williams will visit Coral Gables two weeks later. His visit will coincide with the Hurricanes hosting FIU in football. Williams attends Elkins High School in Missouri City, Texas.

Missouri City is a suburb of Houston. Kameron McGusty who will sit out the 2018-19 season after transferring from Oklahoma is from Katy, Texas, another Houston suburb. Missouri City and Katy are about 30 miles from each other.

Williams is the 97th ranked player in the country, the 15th ranked shooting guard and the seventh-ranked player in Texas. The 247 crystal ball projects Williams 100 percent to Texas.

Harris is the Hurricanes final scheduled September visit. He isn’t arriving until the 28th, which is the day after the Miami football team hosts North Carolina in their ACC opener. Harris is from Fairfax, Virginia and plays for Paul VI Catholic. Fairfax also happens to be where George Mason University is located.

Larranaga has gone into his old neighborhood before to get players. Lykes is from Mitchellville, Maryland. That’s about 35 miles up the beltway from Fairfax.

Like Bouknight and Williams, Harris is 100 percent projected to attend elsewhere. The 247 crystal ball has seven recruiting prognosticators that project the 6’3 180 pounder to Virginia Tech. Harris is the 66th ranked player in the nation and fifth at his position and in Virginia.

If Larranaga and his staff can get a commitment from one of the three it would be a coup at this point. The Hurricanes are also trying to woo the nation’s second-ranked player Vernon Carey Jr. Carey’s father was a star offensive tackle on the Hurricanes football team in the early 2000s.

The Miami basketball program is expected to land 6’2 165-pound combo guard Isaiah Wong from Trenton, New Jersey. Wong is the nation’s 101st ranked recruit, the 13th ranked combo guard and fourth-ranked player in New Jersey.