Recruiting Notebook: John Beilein watches star freshmen, Zak Irvin on fire, more from the AAU circuit

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John Beilein was in Akron, OH on Friday evening at the Tallmadge Rec Center to watch two of the top freshman in Ohio, Luke Kennard and AJ Harris. Beilein wasn’t the only head coach in attendance, he was joined by Ohio State’s Thad Matta and West Virginia’s Bob Huggins.

Kennard was impressive not just with his ability to score but with his complete game. The 6-foot-4 freshman was a game changer on both backboards and played the game with a maturity beyond his years. Harris is a diminutive point guard that is explosive and more than capable of doing damage distributing the ball or scoring with his midrange game. The duo led their King James 15U team to an easy tournament opening win in the 16U bracket. (Photo: Cincy Prep Hoops Report)

Look for much more from Akron on Kennard, Harris and a number of other Michigan recruiting targets in the hours and days to come. After the jump find more Friday night notes featuring Zak Irvin and 2014 big man Sean O’Mara.

Sean O’Mara working on running the floor

Michigan has spent a lot of time recruiting 2014 big man Sean O’Mara in recent months. O’Mara, who holds an Illinois Chicago offer, mentioned that Michigan and Purdue had been recruiting him the hardest in recent weeks and Purdue head coach Matt Painter was in attendance. O’Mara seemed very comfortable with both Michigan and Purdue but mentioned that he was trying to prove to coaches that he can run the floor. Faced off against a completely overmatched Riverview squad, he showed off a bit of that improvement with this transition dunk:

We’ll have much more on O’Mara from Akron and hopefully catch the big man against some stronger competition.

Zak Irvin stands out in Indianapolis

Irvin’s game seems to improve just a little bit each time he takes the floor. The 2013 Michigan commitment was dynamic in the Eric Gordon All-Stars’ opening win in Indianapolis. Irvin had 27 points as the Eric Gordon All-Stars cruised past the Bay Area Hoosiers and he was impressive in all facets. Joe Stapleton is in Indianapolis for UM Hoops and reported that Irvin was feeling his jump shot but also distributing the ball and even playing some point guard. Michigan head coach John Beilein told Irvin and his family that he plans to be on Indianapolis on Sunday and we’ll be sure to have much more from Indianapolis where 2013 commitment Mark Donnal tips off tomorrow.

Other Notes

• Derrick Walton will be out of action this weekend while recovering from an illness.
• Reggie Cameron had a monster game in a six point win over the All Iowa Attack, scoring 26 points on 10-of-15 (5-of-5 3pt) shooting with seven rebounds, four assists and one turnover.
• Devin Booker didn’t shoot the ball well but led the Alabama Challenge to a win and impressed Dave Telep: “2014 SG has innate feel and lock high major game for Alabama Challenge. #eybl good pace”
• Keita Bates-Diop had 13 points in a win for the Illinois Wolves in front of Michigan assistant coach Lavall Jordan.
• 2014 wing Trevon Bluiett had 14 points, four rebounds and a block and caught Evan Daniels’ eye ($).
• If you had any doubt about Michigan’s growing influence in the state of Ohio, here’s a tweet from Benji Burke, an All-Ohio Red AAU coach: “Its my job being a aau coach to send all prospects that fit what we do to head NORTH. Not scared to say that publicly. #themovement”.