Michigan football earns recruiting predictions for 4-stars Travis Johnson and Andre Clarke
Michigan football is closing up its penultimate recruiting weekend of the late spring and early summer and with so many heavy hitters on campus, it's not surprising that the Wolverines are making moves with some of them.
With 10 commitments thus far in 2026, the maize and blue are looking at building out the class even more, and appear poised to do so in short order (though the Sherrone Moore batsignal isn't out just yet to indicate anyone has joined the fold at this juncture).
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Still, the June 13 recruiting weekend appeared to be a big success, so much so that two recruiting sites put in predictions for two separate prospects who were on campus this weekend.
Chesapeake (Va.) Oscar Smith four-star wide receiver Travis Johnson
The Wolverines have been targeting a handful of top-flight wide receivers in the 2026 class. Four-star Zion Robinson visited Ann Arbor in May, and five-star Calvin Russell is set to visit for Victors Weekend. But another mainstay in terms of targets has been Travis Johnson, a four-star from the DMV region.
Johnson visited Ann Arbor this weekend and it apparently went quite well. The Michigan Insider's Sam Webb and Steve Lorenz both put in 247Sports Crystal Ball predictions for the Wolverines to land him, and On3's Steve Wiltfong and EJ Holland did the same on their site.
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Johnson is also considering Virginia Tech, Penn State, South Carolina, and Indiana. He's listed highest by ESPN, which has him as the No. 109 player in the country.
Richmond (Va.) Heritage four-star CB Andre Clarke
Johnson isn't the only visitor this weekend from the DMV that Michigan football made a move with.
The Wolverines are looking at several top-flight cornerbacks, with Khary Adams and Andre Clarke being two of the top targets. Adams visited last weekend while Clarke visited Ann Arbor this week, and it appears that it went well for the latter. Sam Webb put in a 247Sports Crystal Ball while EJ Holland put one in on On3.
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Kentucky had been considered the favorite, while SMU and Miami have also been pushing. He's also listed highest on ESPN, which has him as the No. 100 player nationally.
Clarke has visited Ann Arbor four times -- more than any other school by double.
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Michigan football gets predictions for two 2026 stars
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New York Times
27 minutes ago
- New York Times
Why committing fouls is a necessary evil for Thunder's league-best defense
This moment was created for Lu Dort. Protecting a one-point lead with under two and a half minutes remaining in what amounted to a do-or-die Game 4, the Oklahoma City Thunder's brawny firecracker stayed on brand, picking up Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton full-court. Such is Dort's forte. Haliburton proceeded with caution, avoiding the breakneck pace that Indiana tormented opposing defenses with all year. Before getting to half court, he pitched the ball ahead to Pascal Siakam, but getting rid of the rock did not get rid of Dort. Advertisement Dort watched the ball traverse over his noggin but did not divert his focus from Haliburton. Like an NFL cornerback in press coverage at the line of scrimmage, he jammed Haliburton at half court, extending two hands into the All-NBA guard's chest. The contact halted any forward progress and forced Haliburton to run east or west to get the ball. Haliburton still hoped to go north-south. But Dort, per usual, slid himself in the way. The press coverage at the half-court line allowed the Thunder's All-Defensive First Team guard to get between Haliburton and Siakam as they tried a dribble handoff. The purpose of the action was to slingshot the Pacers' offensive engine downhill toward the rim. But Dort plowed through the 6-foot-8 forward like he wasn't even there. He crowded Haliburton as he received the ball. Haliburton could not turn the corner, so he kicked it back to Siakam and let his teammate probe Oklahoma City's defense on the other side of the floor. As the Pacers worked their pass-heavy offense from side to side, Dort denied Haliburton from getting the ball back in his hands, which encouraged Haliburton to retreat out to the half-court line. And there, Haliburton and Dort stood and waited as the Pacers looked for a shot with just over two minutes remaining in Friday's match, an eventual Thunder victory that tied the NBA Finals at two games apiece. With 10 seconds remaining on the shot clock, Haliburton made his break for the ball. Naturally, Dort was ready. As Haliburton tried to grab it, Dort gave him a bump with his left hand and once again forced himself between the passer and receiver of the dribble handoff. In this instance, Dort got his left hand on the ball and tipped it into the backcourt for what turned into a clutch-time steal that added a point to Oklahoma City's lead. After the game, when referee talk dominated the public discourse, this play drew an awful lot of attention on social media. — Young Simba (@the2kmessiah) June 14, 2025 From the opposite baseline, it appeared as though Dort's physicality crossed the line. But the Thunder had already dictated the terms of the game with their relentless physicality. If it crossed the line, so be it. After all, this isn't just Dort's brand. It's also the Thunder's. Dort may not have picked up a foul on this particular play, part of a special second-half suffocation of Haliburton, but there are other moments like this when an official blows the whistle. The Thunder will take the fouls, whether from him, from fellow perimeter pests Alex Caruso, Jalen Williams and Cason Wallace, or from rim protectors Isaiah Hartenstein and Chet Holmgren. Advertisement In Oklahoma City, where the Thunder will bash offenses into submission, fouls are baked into the recipe, a necessary evil inside the league's top defense. 'It's kind of the cost of doing business with physicality. … A lot of it for us is learning which ones we don't give,' Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. 'Like, a guy gathers the ball, is about to take a tough shot — (Pacers guard Andrew) Nembhard is good at that. You get caught with your hands in there. He knows how to sell those calls or get those calls. He deserves the calls. If you're reaching in late, he's about to shoot a long 2, those are the ones you wanna lay off of. But some of them is just the cost of physicality.' The Thunder are in exclusive company, not just because of their success but also because of their style. Historically, the best defenses can get stops without fouling. But Oklahoma City engulfs basketball's gaudiest attacks not in spite of its hacking but because of it. 'You gotta look at the other stuff,' Caruso told The Athletic. 'The turnover creation, the rebound rate, transition, those are the things that we win. We might give up something with fouls, but we are OK being aggressive and setting the tone that way when we don't give up the other stuff.' The Thunder are kleptomaniacs. After leading the league in takeaways during the regular season, their defensive turnover rate has somehow increased during the playoffs. Elite competition, whether it's Haliburton or Anthony Edwards or Nikola Jokić on the other side, has not hindered what has been the NBA's top defense all year. Oklahoma City allowed the fewest points per possession of any team during the regular season and has stayed atop the league during the playoffs, as well. It makes the Thunder one of only two defenses since the NBA began tracking per-possession data in 1996 to lead the league in defensive efficiency, but also finish bottom five in free-throw rate (free-throw attempts per 100 possessions) allowed. The other is the 2008 Boston Celtics, who famously smashed their way to a title during Year 1 of a big three that included Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. Advertisement In other words, the Thunder foul a ton but don't give up many points. And the last squad that pulled off this strategy to the same extreme got a championship out of it. 'We're going to play the way that we do,' Dort said. 'We're going to be aggressive.' The first possession of an OKC game often includes some player swiping at another. Early, hard fouls or the patented swarming of the paint that's become the team's staple set a Thunder-friendly baseline from the jump, since refs can't send players to the line each possession. They aren't the only team deploying this strategy. In fact, never before has what's normally been a staple among the best defensive teams — guarding without fouling — been flipped on its head so aggressively. Other teams around the league are adopting similar identities, including the only other one that's still alive. The Pacers have played their best defense of the season during a playoff run that has included victories over the Milwaukee Bucks, Cleveland Cavaliers and New York Knicks. Add in a matchup with the Thunder, and that's four opponents that finished inside the top 10 in points per possession during the regular season. Indiana has humbled each of those top-notch offenses. It stifles ball movement. Its perimeter defenders, led by Nembhard and Aaron Nesmith, provide the Dort treatment. It limits efficient shot selection. Even in a Game 4 victory, the Thunder couldn't get into their offense against the Pacers, when OKC dished out only 10 assists and attempted just 17 3-pointers. Meanwhile, one trend stands out: As the Pacers' defense has ramped up, so has its foul rate. The Pacers have fouled significantly more during the playoffs than they did during the regular season, when fouling is supposed to decrease. They now own the highest free-throw rate allowed out of all 16 playoff teams. Advertisement 'I think it's because of the way they are pressuring the way they are,' Daigneault said. 'They're incredibly physical on the perimeter. They're getting the ball up the floor. They're pursuing over screens. And it's disrupted the plays, but the trade-off of that is you end up getting whistles.' If anyone knows, it's Daigneault. But he and Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle aren't the only ones. The first defensive possession of every Orlando Magic game this season was indistinguishable from a brawl. Orlando would strategically come out swinging, similar to Oklahoma City, in the hopes of setting that baseline. The Magic ended the season second in points allowed per possession and 30th in free-throw rate allowed. They are the only team since 1996 to finish dead last in that stat and still own a top-five defense. They are willing to concede the free throws, just like the Thunder. Midway through the first quarter of Game 4, Siakam sprang on a fast break. Two OKC wings, Williams and Aaron Wiggins, stood in front of him, blocking the lane to the hoop. Siakam lofted the ball behind him to microwave scorer Bennedict Mathurin, who was in a position to attack. That's when the Thunder did what they do best. Williams angled in front of Mathurin as Caruso throttled the length of the court to catch the dribbler from behind. Both defenders reached for the ball. In their best moments, which come often, the Thunder look like an angry colony of bees. But in this case, Mathurin got stung. Williams swiped him on the arm while going for the ball. Two free throws. The Thunder bets that a turnover will occur just often enough to justify a foul like this one. It's a mathematical equation. The Thunder's defensive rating would have been 3.3 points per 100 possessions worse had they turned over opponents at a league-average rate instead of a league-best one (assuming their opponent scores at a league-average rate), a gap that doesn't even take into account all the misses that OKC's freneticism causes. Advertisement It might not sound like much, but 3.3 points per 100 was the difference between the second-ranked Magic's defense and the 10th-ranked Detroit Pistons. It was the difference between the Pistons' defense and the 24th-ranked Charlotte Hornets. So the Thunder live with the fouls, not because they are impossible to fix, but because they are a product of their success. 'A lot of times, they just let us rock,' Williams said. 'If we have fouls that we can learn from or we're trying to do the right thing and we foul, we try to learn from those, but they try not to get too involved because it's part of our identity a little bit.' — The Athletic's Sam Amick contributed to this story.
Associated Press
42 minutes ago
- Associated Press
US Open champion JJ Spaun turned a freefall into a title at rain-soaked Oakmont
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Associated Press
an hour ago
- Associated Press
The Red Sox called up their top prospect and swept the Yankees. Then they made a stunning trade
The week began with Boston calling up top prospect Roman Anthony. It ended with the Red Sox trading slugger Rafael Devers. In between, they swept the rival Yankees. What's next for this team is anyone's guess. Boston took two of three from the second-place Rays and then swept the first-place Yankees to pull a game above .500. The Red Sox are 9-17 in one-run games, but they won three of those in a row against Tampa Bay and New York. All of that seemed to signal a potential turning point for a team that's struggled to sustain success since trading Mookie Betts after the 2019 season. But now the post-Betts era has become the post-Devers era. It appeared Devers would be a franchise cornerstone for years to come after the Red Sox signed him to a 10-year contract in 2023. Now he's been sent to San Francisco following a tumultuous start to this season. When the Red Sox added Alex Bregman, it opened a new can of worms over where Devers would play, and his relationship with the team went south. So Boston moves forward — with Devers gone and Bregman and fellow infielder Tristan Casas on the injured list. The Red Sox scored at least eight runs in four of five games from June 4-9. Then they held opponents to one run or fewer in three of their next five. Anthony is baseball's top-ranked prospect according to MLB Pipeline. Boston drafted him with the 79th pick in 2022, and the 21-year-old outfielder had a .914 OPS at Triple-A Worcester when called up. He's 1 for 17 at the plate so far. Now he might be under even more pressure — both this year and in the future. Boston has just one winning season since trading Betts to the Dodgers. Next in line? MLB Pipeline's No. 2 prospect is Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander Bubba Chandler, who was drafted 72nd in 2021. He's 2-1 with a 2.63 ERA in 13 starts this year at Triple-A Indianapolis. The Pirates, of course, already have one outstanding young pitcher in Paul Skenes, and even he hasn't been able to prevent them from falling 15 games under .500. Pittsburgh ranks dead last in the majors with 3.18 runs per game. Excitement about Chandler's future? Sure. Can he fix what's holding the Pirates back? Perhaps not. Trivia time Devers began his career in 2017. Since then, he leads the Red Sox with 215 home runs. Betts is still fourth on that list with 85, even though that only includes three of his seasons in Boston. Who are the two players between Devers and Betts on that list? Line of the week Spencer Strider struck out 13 in six scoreless innings Saturday in Atlanta's 4-1 victory over Colorado. The Braves could desperately use some positive signs from Strider, who is 1-5 with a 4.35 ERA. Atlanta took two of three from the Rockies but is still eight games under .500. Comeback of the week The Arizona Diamondbacks scored five runs in the bottom of the ninth to beat San Diego 8-7 on Saturday night. Geraldo Perdomo's three-run triple tied the game with one out, and then Josh Naylor scored Perdomo with a grounder. San Diego's win probability topped out at 98.7% in the ninth, according to Baseball Savant. Trivia answer J.D. Martinez, with 130 homers for the Red Sox since then, and Xander Bogaerts with 115. ___ AP MLB:
