Last week, we started our offseason series of ranking the best Michigan men’s basketball players since the first time the Wolverines won a national championship back in 1989 to celebrate a 37-year history of Michigan basketball between titles. Today, we look at the next tier up, and it’s a significant one from our scoring model from a batch of already quality list of players in the first rendition of this series.
Michigan
Top Michigan in-state recruits of all time and how their careers went
The Michigan Wolverines locked up the highest recruit in Michigan football history on Thursday evening with the commitment of five-star quarterback Bryce Underwood. He carries a ton of accolades to Ann Arbor, including the highest rated recruit in the state of Michigan’s football history on 247Sports.
From Benny Friedman, to Anthony Carter, to Brandon Graham and Aidan Hutchinson, there is a long list of Michigan football legends that came from the state of Michigan. As Underwood gets settled into Ann Arbor in the near future, we take a look at some of the top Michigan in-state recruits of all time and how their careers went.
1. Charles Rogers – WR – Class of 2000
Before Underwood, the top-rated high school player to come out of the state of Michigan was wide receiver Charles Rogers. Rogers went to Saginaw High School and had a 0.9988 rating.
Rogers went to Michigan State and cemented himself as one of the best college wide receivers of all time. From 2000-02, Rogers broke the school record for most touchdowns in a career with 27, breaking the record held by former Spartans wide receiver and baseball legend Kirk Gibson, as well as the school record for most receiving yards in a single game with 270. He also broke Randy Moss’ NCAA record of 13 consecutive games with a touchdown catch
During Rogers’ junior season, he put up 1,351 yards and 13 touchdowns, winning the Biletnikoff Award and Paul Warfield Trophy as the season’s outstanding college football receiver. He was a unanimous All-American.
The Detroit Lions drafted Rogers No. 2 overall in the 2003 NFL Draft. While his NFL career was known by many as an extreme let-down, Rogers will forever be remembered as an all-time great Spartan.
2. Dante Moore – QB – Class of 2023
Dante Moore is still waiting for his career to blossom. Moore attended Martin Luther King High School in Detroit, where he earned a 0.9980 rating as the No. 4 player in the 2023 class. He went to UCLA, but had a rough first season with 1,610 passing yards, 11 touchdowns and nine interceptions.
Moore entered the transfer portal and is now with the Oregon Ducks, sitting behind Dillon Gabriel this season. He is expected to take the reins next year for Dan Lanning’s offense. Moore’s career is still young, but he was another example of the growing pains that come with starting a true freshman quarterback.
3. LaMarr Woodley – LB – Class of 2003
LaMarr Woodley was the highest in-state recruit to commit to Michigan before Underwood, earning a 0.9972 rating out of Saginaw High School in 2003. Woodley was named a captain in 2006 and he broke out for the Wolverines. Woodley collected 12 sacks as a senior and won the Lombardi Award as the best lineman, offensive or defensive, in the country. His 12 sacks led the Big Ten and was eighth in the nation. After his senior season, Woodley was a first-team All-Big Ten selection and a unanimous All-American.
After his Michigan career, the Pittsburgh Steelers selected Woodley with the No. 46 overall pick in the 2007 NFL Draft. Woodley played in 110 NFL games, making 58 sacks, 229 solo tackles and nine forced fumbles. WooHeley played for the Steelers from 2007-2013, the Oakland Raiders in 2014, and finished his career with the Arizona Cardinals in 2015.
4. Kelly Baraka – RB – Class of 2001
There were many success stories on this list, but running back Kelly Baraka was the one outlier. Baraka was a consensus five-star from Portage Northern High School. With a 0.9940 rating, he was supposed to be the next great running back to play at Michigan…but that never happened.
The former high school All-American was arrested twice for marijuana possession before his freshman year and was suspended for the season by then-head coach Lloyd Carr. Still, he was set to return for the 2002 season and bring a style of speed Michigan hadn’t seen in the backfield since Tyrone Wheatley. That never happened, though, and Carr eventually kicked him off the team because of his off-field issues.
5. Brandon Graham – ILB – Class of 2006
Brandon Graham had all the accolades in the world coming into his freshman year at Michigan. At Crockett Vocation Tech in Detroit, Graham was named to the USA Today All-America first team, and was the Michigan Gatorade Player of the Year. He had a 0.9930 rating as a five-star. Graham became the first player from the state of Michigan to play in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl.
Graham had a dominant career at Michigan. Graham became the first defensive player in school history to be voted Bo Schembechler Most Valuable Player twice (2008, 2009), he shared the 2009 Chicago Tribune Silver Football as the Big Ten’s MVP, and he was named to the 2008 All-Big Ten second team and 2009 All-Big Ten first team.
In four seasons in Ann Arbor, Graham posted 138 tackles, 56 tackles for loss, 29.5 sacks, three fumble recoveries and three pass breakups. His 56 TFLs and 29.5 sacks rank second in Michigan history, and he is tied for second at Michigan in career forced fumbles.
After an outstanding career with the Wolverines, the Philadelphia Eagles drafted Graham 13th overall in the 2010 draft. Graham is still playing at a high level for the Eagles 14 years later, and he has 2.5 sacks in 2024 at 36 years old.
The Spartans have a plethora of players coming in for official visits this weekend.
Few are bigger than 4-star cornerback/wide receiver Gideon Gash.
Gash is a 6-foot-4, 205-pound speedster out of Detroit Catholic Central High School in Novi, Michigan. He holds a 91 rating from 247Sports, which ranks him as the third-best recruit in Michigan for the 2027 class and the fifth-best athlete in the entire class. His 91 rating is also good enough to rank him as the No. 70 overall recruit in the nation.
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His composite score is nearly as good as it gets at 0.9701. That keeps him ranked as the fifth-best athlete in the recruiting class while moving him up to the second-highest-rated recruit in the state of Michigan. His composite score is also the 70th-best mark nationally.
If you’re reading this and thinking you thought the Spartans already had a Gash on the roster, you’d be correct. In fact, they have two.
Older brother Caleb Gash is a redshirt sophomore on the Spartan roster and plays safety for Joe Rossi and the defense. Then, earlier this year, another older brother, Samson Gash, signed his commitment to the Michigan State Spartans. Samson was ranked as the seventh-best recruit in the state of Michigan in the 2026 class and the No. 43 wide receiver in the country. So, in fact, there are already two Gash brothers on the Spartans’ roster, with Gideon still deciding where he wants to play following his final years of high school football.
The Gash brothers are certainly not new to the game. Their father, Sam Gash, enjoyed a successful football career of his own. He played at Penn State from 1987-1991 before being selected in the eighth round of the 1992 NFL Draft by the New England Patriots. He also spent time with the Buffalo Bills, Baltimore Ravens, and New Orleans Saints during his NFL career. Gash was a Super Bowl XXXV champion and a two-time Pro Bowl selection. Following his playing days, he went on to coach in the NFL with the New York Jets, Detroit Lions, and Green Bay Packers.
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Gideon Gash has been one of Pat Fitzgerald’s most important recruiting targets since arriving at Michigan State. Alongside Joe Rossi and James Adams, Fitzgerald has played a key role in the Spartans’ pursuit of the talented athlete. Based on the recruiting efforts so far, it appears Michigan State would prefer to see Gash on the defensive side of the ball, where he could line up alongside his older brother Caleb.
Gash was named the 2026 MVP of the Polynesian Bowl National Showcase & Combine after clocking a blazing 4.35-second 40-yard dash.
As a junior in 2025, Gash was a two-way standout for Detroit Catholic Central, helping lead the Shamrocks to a 14-1 record and a Michigan Division 1 state championship. He played both wide receiver and cornerback throughout the season.
On offense, Gash caught 19 passes for 540 yards, averaging 28.4 yards per catch, while scoring eight touchdowns. Defensively, he totaled 74 tackles, three tackles for loss, nine pass breakups, one interception, one forced fumble, and one fumble recovery. He also added a kickoff return touchdown.
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In the state championship game against Cass Tech, Gash delivered one of his best performances of the season. He recorded six tackles and one pass breakup on defense while hauling in three receptions for 126 yards and three touchdowns on offense.
According to 247Sports, Gash currently appears warm on four programs: Michigan State, Texas Tech, Alabama, and Oklahoma. He also holds offers from Auburn, Boston College, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, LSU, Louisville, Michigan, Missouri, Northwestern, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Wake Forest, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
There is certainly no shortage of interest in one of the nation’s top athletes, meaning the Spartans will have to work hard to fend off some of the premier programs in college football.
Having two brothers already on the roster is a great starting point for Michigan State. However, it will take a strong official visit this weekend to continue building momentum and potentially put the Spartans in an even better position moving forward.
No. 22 – F Morez Johnson Jr. – Score: 78.4
The first player from Michigan’s 2025-26 team has made it on the list, and it’s the bodyguard himself, Morez Johnson Jr. His stint in Ann Arbor was short, but impactful. After transferring in from Illinois, he found his way into a starting lineup with two other players 6-foot-9 or taller in Yaxel Lendeborg and Aday Mara. The trio wreaked havoc all season long thanks to their length and athleticism in a scheme tailor-made by head coach Dusty May.
Johnson was one of the most efficient players in the country, averaging 13.1 points per game on a 62.3 percent clip. He also led the team with 7.3 rebounds per game and was commonly considered one of the best defensive players on the floor with his ability to guard all five positions. He was a Second-Team All-Big Ten and was on the All-Big Ten Defensive Team as well.
No. 21 – F Deshawn Sims – Score: 78.9
In the transition from Tommy Amaker to John Beilein, Deshawn Sims was a part of a special group that propelled the program to relevancy again. Sims was the 19th player in program history to reach 1,500 career points, and the 15th to surpass 700 rebounds. Consistency was key, as he played in 129 consecutive games over four seasons, starting 92 of them.
Everything came together for the Wolverines in the 2008-09 season when Sims and co-star Manny Harris led the team to its first NCAA Tournament appearance in more than a decade. The team underperformed in 2009-10, but Sims’ play stayed consistent.
Along with the elite company Sims established with his longevity, he was also a three-time All-Big Ten honoree and averaged 16.1 points and 7.2 rebounds per game over his final two seasons.
No. 20 – F Ray Jackson – Score: 81.6
Not only did we have the introduction to the 2026 championship team, but this stretch also introduces us to the Fab Five with forward Ray Jackson, the final member of the historic 1991 class.
Jackson not only has the pedigree tied to the culture that surrounded the Fab Five and their two runner-up finishes in the NCAA Tournament, but he was also a great player. One could argue he was the most unheralded of the bunch and deserves more credit than he does. Somehow, he was only a two-time All-Big Ten performer, but he averaged 17.1 points and 7.3 rebounds per game in his final three seasons with the program.
He ascended from the last of the Fab Five to a premier Big Ten player during his four-year career, helping guide Maurice Taylor — an honorable mention in this series — to being a member of the All-Big Ten freshman team when Jackson was a senior.
Jackson’s impact was profound, not just for his role in the Fab Five but for the transition out of it with future players who had impossible shoes to fill. The Wolverines not only stayed afloat, but remained tournament teams in the years following, which would have meant more had that era not been tarnished with “scandal” for a fraction of what is being done today in the NIL world.
- The Top 25 Michigan men’s basketball players since 1989: No. 25-23
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