Adding to a recruiting class which already includes a pair of junior college All-Americans and a McDonald's All-American, the University of Detroit Mercy Titans signed Michigan's Class D Player of the Year, Evan Bruinsma to a National Letter of Intent on Thursday.

The 6-foot-7 forward led Muskegon Western Michigan Christian High School to three straight boys basketball state titles in Class D, and a soccer championship as a sophomore. Bruinsma scored more than 1,000 points in his career, averaging 21.6 points per game as a senior.

“He is a winner and a great student-athlete and you are always looking to add that kind of talent to your team. He has improved every year and took his game to a new level as a senior,” U-D coach Ray McCallum Sr. said in a release. “He is very versatile and can fill a few different rolls on our team. He will need to learn to play a bit closer to the basket, but he can also do a lot of everything and we are excited to have him join us."

Bruinsma joins McCallum's son, Birmingham Detroit Country Day standout Ray McCallum Jr., as incoming freshmen, while the Titans also added Juco All-Americans Nick Minnerath (Jackson Community College) and Chris Blake (Trinity Valley Community College.)

One of the biggest criticisms of the Michigan men's basketball program under John Beilein is his tenuous (at best) relationships with coaches in the Detroit PSL.


On Saturday, Beilein made a move that should shore up his contact list in Southeast Michigan, adding former University of Detroit Mercy player and Detroit Southeastern grad Bacari Alexander to his coaching staff as an assistant. The 33-year-old joins fellow U-D grad Mike Jackson — one of his former coaches with the Titans — on the staff, giving Beilein two key Detroit recruiters.


"He (Alexander) has strong roots in Michigan and significant recruiting experience both here and in neighboring states," Beilein said in a release. "He is a passionate teacher with strong communication skills. Bacari is a former post player and has a proven ability in the development of big men at the college level. With our young front court, that was an important factor in my final selection. I look forward to Bacari's immediate and very positive impact on the growth of our program."


Alexander spent the last two seasons at Western Michigan (where he helped the Broncos load up on Detroit-area players) after starting his coaching career under Perry Watson at U-D, with a one-year stop at Ohio University sandwiched in between. He even had a stint as a Globetrotter.


His biggest value for the Wolverines, aside from recruiting, will be working with the big men, one of the Wolverines' true weaknesses over the last few years. With DeShawn Sims and Zack Gibson graduating, U-M will have only redshirt freshmen Blake McLimans and Jordan Morgan, and true freshmen Jon Horford and Evan Smotrycz in the post next season, making Alexander's job all that much harder.


“I’m a grass-roots guy. I’ve done very well in recruiting the national urban areas of the United States, let alone Detroit,” Alexander told AnnArbor.com's Michael Rothstein. “I’m a PSL product and a lot of times it helps with regards to recruiting because people tend to embrace their own. So that can be, that has been an advantage."

When Trey Zeigler first arrived in Michigan, he was arriving from Los Angeles, where he'd already separated himself as an up-and-coming basketball star. And he was going to Mount Pleasant, population 25,000, where his father Ernie had just become the new men's basketball coach at Central Michigan University.

It wasn't just his big feet that marked the eighth-grader as a potential big fish in a little pond.

Shoot, the two high school basketball coaching staffs in town even got into a minor squabble in the audience at his father's introductory press conference, arguing over who was going to get Trey, once he entered high school.

Highly-sought after doesn't even begin to explain it.

Flash forward four years, and every college coach in America was after the 6-foot-5 shooting guard, ranked among the nation's best players by all the recruiting services. His father's old boss, UCLA coach Ben Howland, wanted Zeigler to come back to La-La Land. Before directing the Blue Devils to another national title, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski first got directions to one of Zeigler's games. MSU's Tom Izzo figured Zeigler could be the next in a line of great Saginaw Valley League players to don the big green Spartan 'S,' while Michigan coach John Beilein thought Zeigler would be the perfect fit in Maize and Blue to replace the recently-departed Manny Harris.

One guy didn't really sell his program hard to Zeigler: His own dad.

"My dad was hands-off the whole time, just being a dad. He went on most of the visits with me, and he just looked at it from a dad's standpoint, where he thought I'd fit best," said the younger Zeigler, shortly after making the announcement of his college choice on live TV from a lawyer's office in Southfield, "and when it came down to it, the last month is really when he started telling me how much he wanted me to be here. So that helped a lot, letting him let me figure things out on my own."

What he figured out — eventually — was something that would have come as a complete shock to the 15-year-old that first came to Mount Pleasant: Staying put was a pretty good option.
"I'll be honest with you — I never really thought this was an option," said Zeigler with a laugh.

Until now.

Zeigler's announced choice of CMU, unveiled when he pulled a maroon cap on his head on ESPNU, will be confirmed this morning, when he signs his National Letter of Intent at a second ceremony at his high school.

It took a lot for Zeigler to turn down the offers from all the big schools, especially some of the in-state powers he'd come to admire in his time in Michigan.

"Michigan is a great program, and I love coach Beilein and coach (Mike) Jackson, and they did a great job with recruiting me — and if my dad wasn't a coach anywhere, that's probably where I'd be," Zeigler admitted.

His story is eerily similar to that of his close friend, Ray McCallum, the star point guard from Birmingham Detroit Country Day. McCallum turned down offers from bigger programs to play for his own father at University of Detroit Mercy, filming his own ESPNU segment in the same TV studio just minutes before Zeigler.

For the full story of how the two families — fathers and sons — made their way through the awkward recruiting process together, stay tuned to the college section of TheOaklandPress.com.

Listen to Zeigler's comments from Wednesday's event below.

Just hours before the NCAA's late signing period for men's basketball opens, and it looks like both of the state's sought-after unsigned guards — Birmingham Detroit Country Day's Ray McCallum Jr. and Mount Pleasant's Trey Zeigler — are going to stay home.

Literally.

Both of the players are in the unique situation of being the sons of Division I basketball coaches: University of Detroit Mercy employs Ray McCallum Sr. as its head coach, while Zeigler's dad, Ernie, is the head coach at Central Michigan University.

And as of Tuesday night, it looks like both players are going to join their father's program, rather than take offers from bigger (and some would say better) programs.

The Mount Pleasant Morning Sun reported that Zeigler will make his decision official on television Wednesday afternoon, then sign at the high school on Thursday, while McCallum will sign his paperwork — cementing a poorly-kept secret of his intentions — at a law firm in Southfield Wednesday. Both signings will be televised on ESPNU on Wednesday: McCallum at 4:10 p.m. and Zeigler at 4:40.

The two players, who are friends and teammates on the camp circuit, have parallel stories. Both moved to a new state in high school — Zeigler from California and McCallum from Indiana — and both have had the unique experience of being not only a sought-after top recruit, but also being recruited by their own fathers.

McCallum, ranked as the 25th-best recruit by Scout.com and the 60th best by Rivals.com, was deciding between offers from Arizona, Florida, Oklahoma, UCLA, Miami (Fla.), Minnesota and Notre Dame, while Zeigler (No. 35 Scout/No. 26 Rivals) was contemplating Michigan, UCLA, Arizona, Arizona State, Michigan State, Oklahoma, Duke, LSU and Miami (Fla).

Skeptics have tied each of the sons to their fathers' career coattails, hinting that the fathers might benefit most from having their sons stay at home. Rumors have linked McCallum Sr. with other coaching jobs — where he could take his son without a transfer penalty — while critics have insinuated that the elder Zeigler's contract extension with CMU, agreed-upon last week but finalized on Tuesday, was linked to his son's commitment. If anything, the extension may have been the deciding factor for Trey, rather than vice-versa.

There might be some disappointment from fans of bigger schools in the state — both U-M and MSU were hoping Zeigler would fall in their laps late — but this seems to be a win-win situation for both families. Both programs get a boost of publicity — as well as a top-notch player — and neither kid has to look his father in the eye and say, "Your program isn't good enough, Dad."

Birmingham Marian grad Brigid Mulroy, the top 3-point shooter in the nation in Division I women's basketball, was named the University of Detroit Mercy team MVP at Thursday's team awards banquet. The senior was the leading scorer for the Titans in 13 of 31 games, leading UDM to a 17-14 record (the program's most wins since 2000-01), and a second-place finish in the Horizon League. She was the first Titan woman to earn All-Horizon League First Team honors in eight seasons.

She'll represent UDM as one of eight contestants in the 3-point contest on April 1, as part of the 22nd Annual State Farm 3-Point Championship at the Final Four in Indianapolis.

Sophomore Lauren Allen (Rochester HS), who started 28 of 31 games and every league contest, earned Most Improved Player Award. Sophomore Yar Shayok, the Horizon League's top newcomer, earned the same honor for the Titans, adding the Hustle Award.