Brandon Johns to Michigan? East Lansing Assistant Says Message Board Rumors Are Exactly That

UPDATE: Brandon Johns has committed to Michigan

Message boards, Twitter and just about anywhere on the internet where you can talk Michigan recruiting have been running with a story that East Lansing High School's Brandon Johns has committed to the University of Michigan.

However, there are parts of the story that do not add up.

It all begins with a few tweets from sources of varying degrees of credibility claiming Johns has committed to U-M. Here's one of the more credible-looking tweets from a PrepHoops network contributor at CMU.

While the tweet does not mention Johns specifically, consider that Johns is listed as the No. 1 player from the state of Michigan in the 2018 class on multiple recruiting databases. Plus, given his proximity to Michigan State, the two are very closely tied. It's also noteworthy that Michigan State had made Johns' top 10 schools. Michigan did as well.

We spoke to East Lansing Trojans assistant basketball coach Scott Martin who confirmed some of our own suspicions about this story.

"What he has told me is that he will announce his decision before the school year begins" Martin told The Game 730 AM WVFN. "He wants to focus on his AAU season, and in between that and the school year he will announce so he can focus solely on his senior season."

So the timing does technically fits Johns' timetable. Johns' team, the Indy Spiece Heat, sees its schedule pick up more intensely in July.

"I have not heard anything from him and I believe the rumors are just that--rumors," Martin told WVFN.

Martin said that Johns has told him he will inform Martin (and other coaches and staff) of his college decision before he goes public with the news.

East Lansing boys basketball head coach Steve Finamore was not immediately available for comment.

The buzz that surrounded Johns recently on the recruiting trail makes this supposed decision even more suspicious. Since announcing his top 10 on Twitter, Johns has received more offers, most notably from Cal and Indiana. Johns also took an unofficial visit to IU earlier this month and took a different unofficial visit to Pittsburgh just last weekend.

So with a very busy month of June for his recruitment, it wouldn't necessarily make sense for Johns to commit with almost zero time between a visit to one school and committing to a completely different school-- all with his AAU season ongoing.

On 247Sports, a major recruiting database, players are given "Crystal Ball" projections from different experts, and their combined tallies create the percentages you see on the composite. It is worth noting that the contributor who first moved Johns' crystal ball to Michigan sports an accuracy rating of about 60 percent. All other contributors and experts involved in the guesswork around Johns have accuracy ratings between 70 and 85 percent. Multiple players of the recruit guessing game have since shifted their projections to Michigan, perhaps because of these unsubstantiated claims.