Six foot ten big man Blake McLimans verbally committed to Michigan head coach John Beilein today. McLimans is a well regarded baseball prospect for most of his high school career with a high 80s to low 90s fastball (he also was a volleyball player). Blake decided to attend Worcester Academy this year for an extra year of school to focus on basketball. Well apparently it worked because John Beilein jumped in with a scholarship offer this weekend Blake has accepted it. McLimans made his official visit to Ann Arbor this weekend along with commitments Darius Morris and Jordan Morgan as well as other Michigan targets including junior Will Regan, Trey Zeigler, and Brandan Kearney.

McLimans had previously visited Siena, Hofstra, and Providence. He was also drawing recent interest from Boston College, Georgia Tech, and Connecticut. McLimans is rated a 3 star on his newly posted Rivals profile, and has no Scout or ESPN profile.

The scouting report on McLimans is that he is a versatile 6-10 big man who can play on the perimeter. He’s skinny but he can run the floor and hit the face up jumper but also has nice moves in the post. Blake is also reportedly a solid ball handler who can hit the occasional three point shot. There isn’t a lot of scouting information on him because as was mentioned he didn’t play AAU ball. But from the quick run down Blake appears to be a perfect Beilein big man.

Here is a report on McLimans’ senior season:

A three-year starter at Hamburg, McLimans will go down as one of the better players in the history of the program and one of its best ‘big men.’ At 6-feet, 9-inches, McLimans averaged a remarkable 18 points, nine rebounds and five blocks in leading the Bulldogs to a share of the regular season ECIC II title. He became Hamburg’s all-time blocked shots leader and also finished sixth on the school’s career scoring list with 889 points, as well as its fifth all-time leading rebounder. McLimans became a skillful inside presence who could also step outside to drain a jumper. Defensively, McLimans made it so that no inside shot was safe when he roamed under the basket. Hamburg’s offense ran through McLimans and when he got his touches, the Bulldogs were most successful.

“He got better and better every year and his work ethic was sound,” Hamburg head coach Pat Cauley said. “He was our most consistent player. We knew almost every game he would come up with a double-double. The other team also knew it and guarded against it, but he still delivered.”

It’s also worth noting that McLimans is getting quality coaching at Worcester Academy which is one of the top prep schools in the nation athletically and features up to 8 division one players.

In my opinion this is a great commitment and rounds out a very balanced 2009 recruiting class. McLimans explosion over the last month or so drawing lots of high major interest should calm some of the star-gazers doubts about a very good prospect, especially late in the game. In some senses McLimans replaces Nate Lubick, in others he replaces Robin Benzing.

The completed 2009 class:

• Darius Morris – PG – 6’3″
• Matt Vogrich – SG – 6’4″
• Jordan Morgan – PF/C – 6’9″
• Blake McLimans – PF – 6’10″

McLimans is the versatile big man that Beilein needs and while he is off the radar Beilein clearly saw something he liked. He went out to Worcester Academy a couple times in the last month or so to check him out and clearly has a good sense. While his game has some similarities to Lubick, the advantage with McLimans is that he is a 2009 recruit who will be able to come in and play next year, but he also is a year older than a typical 2009 recruit.

This is the last available scholarship in the 2009 class (scholarship breakdown) so it’s on to the class 2010. Will Regan is clearly a priority as well as Trey Zeigler. There are also other wings to keep an eye on including Moses Morgan, Isaiah Sykes and more. Now that the 2009 class is done, I’ll try to the get a 2010 hot board finalized as soon as possible.

One other note, if I’m John Beilein I think I would keep recruiting Angus Brandt just in case there are any departures or transfers. With Brandt’s expected spring decision I feel like this only makes sense at this point. This doesn’t mean I necesarily expect departures but after last year I think it’s better safe than sorry.