Justin Turner stays close to home, at Bowling Green

DETROIT - One of the last remaining dominoes in Michigan loaded class of 2016 has fallen, as Detroit Renaissance senior combo guard Justin Turner verbally committed to Bowling Green State University. The 6-4, Turner, chose the Falcons over a number of other Mid-American Conference schools, and figures to be a steal this late in the process.

Turner averaged 21 points, seven rebounds, and five assists his senior season at Renaissance. He led his team to the program's first city title appearance in 10 years, and earned all-city and all-state honors.

"Bowling Green had pretty much been there since the beginning of my recruitment, back when it started, the beginning of my sophomore year," Turner said. "They have a great coaching staff. Coach Huger used to be a coach at the University of Miami, he develops his players well, and I like his style of play. Basically, they've been there since the beginning, and they wanted me."

Turner took a visit down Interstate-75 to Bowling Green over the weekend, when he ultimately made his mind up on where he wanted to continue his basketball career in college. Turner waited so long to make his decision, because he wanted to filter out all of the schools that he felt was not right for him, and Bowling Green, which is just about 90 minutes away from his home, was the school that stood out above the rest.

"When I took the visit, I was still talking to a couple of schools," said Turner. "All of them were pretty much saying the same thing, but, Coach Huger was saying different stuff. He was being totally upfront with me about everything, about where the program was, and playing time. I took value to that, and I love the coaching staff there.

"Bowling Green is only an hour and 20 minutes away, so, my family was happy about that. They wanted to see me play, so, I'm not too far from them."

At Renaissance, Turner was able to play both guard positions, with his class and skill set. He is more of a shooting guard, but has great point guard, and has been working on becoming more of a point guard. Bowling Green did not mind Turner being a bit of a tweener, which was another plus for him.

"He (Huber) knew that I can both," Turner said "So, it's pretty much like my high school situation, where, I'm going to be playing off the ball, and playing point (guard). He told me he's going to develop me into a better point guard, working on my ball handling, getting my shot more consistent, and I've been working on my size, getting my body bigger."

With Turner's decision to attend Bowling Green, he became the seventh guard out of the city of Detroit to go Division I, joining Cassius Winston of University of Detroit Jesuit (Michigan State), Western's Brailen Neely (Oakland), East English Village Prep's Karmari Newman (George Mason) and Chris Rollins (IPFW), Henry Ford's James Towns (Niagara), and Allen Academy's Jason Williams (ETSU).