Washington made a huge splash in recruiting on Friday, but it wasn’t for landing a commitment from a player. The Huskies have hired Missouri women’s basketball assistant coach Michael Porter Sr. to be an assistant on the men’s team, according to a report from Eric Bossi of Rivals.com.
This is important because Michael Porter Jr. is a five-star prospect and the potential No. 1 player in the Class of 2017. He’s a dynamic wing at 6-foot-9 and he can score at all three levels of the floor. With the addition of his father to the Washington coaching staff, it would look like the Huskies are the strong favorites to land Porter Jr. as he could play for his father in what is likely to be his only year of college basketball.
Jontay Porter, a Class of 2018 forward and the younger brother of Michael Jr., is also committed to Washington already so this makes sense for beyond the one season Michael Porter Jr. would play college hoops.
We’ve seen this sort of move from a coaching staff before when Memphis hired Keelon Lawson to be an assistant coach in part to entice two of his sons to join the program. When head coach Josh Pastner took the Georgia Tech job this offseason, Lawson was given a new role in the Memphis program.