Michigan basketball makes it official by signing George Washington III, Papa Kante

The Wolverines waited one day to announce it, but Michigan basketball did ink both of its recent four-star commitments during Wednesday's early signing day, Papa Kante and George Washington III.

Kante, a 6-foot-10 center rated the No. 107 prospect according to 247sports composite ranking from Connecticut was born and raised in Senegal before he moved to the states for high school in 2019. He is the fourth international signing for Michigan in the past four years joining Franz Wagner (2019-20; Germany), Moussa Diabate' (2021-22; France) and Youssef Khayat (2022-23; Lebanon).

Kante played his summer ball with the N.Y. Renaissance on the 2022 EYBL circuit where he put up 9.4 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks across 13 games. He has a 7-foot-4 wingspan

"Extremely excited to have Papa Kante and George Washington III join our Michigan family," said Michigan coach Juwan Howard. "Both young men are not only very skilled basketball players, but they're also great students and high character individuals. They will be great additions to our team.

"I had an opportunity to build a relationship with both young men and just getting to know who they are inside is just fitting on why we were so high on asking these young men to join our Michigan family."

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Those relationships were just a bit harder to create with Kante's family, since they live in Senegal and speak very limited English.

Howard, who prides his recruiting on making bonds with not only the desired player, but his family, said that it wasn't a problem and that Kante did a good job of translating and being the intermediary as Howard spelled out his vision for the talented big man.

"It was great getting an opportunity to speak with them this summer," Howard said. "It was more on Facetime, haven't had an opportunity to go out to Senegal yet but looking forward to flying out and having a chance to meet the parents in person.

"But you figure out ways to communicate, it's not that hard, and Papa was helping in a lot of ways on both sides."

As for Washington III, he is ranked as the No. 76 overall recruit according to 247Sports Composite rankings, ninth in Ohio and the No. 2 shooting guard

The 6-foot-2 shooting guard out of Louisville, Ky., transferred to Chaminade-Julienne High School in Dayton, Ohio, for his final high school season after his father, George Jr., started a new job as an assistant coach with the Dayton women's basketball program.

Washington III showed he was a prolific scorer the past two years in Louisville, netting 1,346 points (23.6 points per game), with 136 triples while hitting free throws (328-for-36) at 91.1% clip. A season ago he averaged 23.4 points per game along with 6.8 rebounds, scored 10 points or more in 30 of 31 games and had a career-high 45-point effort last January.

"George comes from a basketball family," Howard said in a release. "He is a coach's son. With all of that, he has grown up around the game. He has that certain mindset for it. We like that. He is crafty and is a gifted shooter and scorer. He has a well-rounded game and we can't wait to see him suit up."

The Wolverines signed five freshmen a season ago, including some quite late in the process like Khayat, who didn't commit until June and joined the program on their trip to France just months later. With that said, the question to Howard was, is he expecting more commitments in the next signing period or does he feel comfortable with his roster construction and scholarship count as it currently stands?

"Haven't gotten that far yet," he said. "We're taking it one day at a time."

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan basketball recruiting: George Washington III, Papa Kante sign