5-Star Michael Porter Jr. Has 4 Top Schools After Reopening Recruitment
Five-star forward Michael Porter Jr. has four schools in the mix after officially announcing the reopening of his recruitment earlier today.
Porter Jr. had signed with the Washington Huskies after committing to the program last July, but the school fired head coach Lorenzo Romar, Porter's godfather, after a 9-22 season. Porter's father also served as an assistant coach on Romar's staff, but was not retained by new head coach Mike Hopkins.
Today, Porter officially announced that he will be asking for his release from UW. He told reporters that his father has been offered a job at Missouri, the school that many view as the new favorite to land the nation's No. 2 player, but that he won't necessarily commit there, even if Porter Sr. accepts the position.
Missouri is one of the four schools involved in the recruitment now, and Washington remains in the mix. Those two programs are joined by Oklahoma and Virginia, which will each feature good friends of Porter on their rosters.
He discussed the four programs with USA Today:
On Washington: “I love Seattle and from what I hear Mike Hopkins is that dude so I’m gonna talk to him and see what he’s saying.”
On Missouri: “That’s home for me and they reached out to my dad with a job offer so if he accepts that, not saying I’ll definitely go there, but it’d be big.”
On Oklahoma: “They’ve got Trae (Young) and before any commitments happened we talked about being college teammates. Now that opportunity is back and I know we’d do our thing and do something special.”
On Virginia: “I know they’re not super offensive-minded but my best friend Kyle Guy goes there and back when they were recruiting me they always talked about needing a scorer. If I go there I can step into that role.”
The four schools were all in the top five that Porter put out last May, along with Indiana, which is currently looking to replace fired head coach Tom Crean.
Porter is the No. 2 player in 247Sports' composite class of 2017 rankings, and No. 1 in the ESPN100. He says that is open to other schools once he receives his release, but he cannot speak with other programs until Hopkins and Washington grant that request.
