Michigan Basketball: Wolverines Working with Proven Parts

Tacked on the end of a dismal football season last year was a Michigan basketball season that looked almost just as bad.

Thanks to plenty of misfortune and an unusually shaky start, the Wolverines stumbled to a 16-16 overall record and finished 8-10 in the Big Ten.

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Hopes of slipping in the backdoor of the NCAA Tournament were virtually erased weeks before the season even ended.

This year is a different story though.

Same pieces, just a different story.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way. Caris LeVert and Derrick Walton Jr. are going to be back at 100 percent for the start of the season. LeVert’s coming off his foot surgery, while Walton played through a good chunk of last season as pretty much half a player because of injuries.

LeVert averaged 12.9 points per game in 2013-2014 and then was averaging 14.9 points per game last season.

He knew he was the go-to guy, but sometimes he tried to take on too much of the role by playing bigger than himself. That was LeVert’s biggest weakness; he was trying to do too much at times.

Hopefully some extended time off the court put some perspective in his game, and he’ll learn to move with the flow of his team, rather than making everyone else adjust to him.

Walton was really just a shell of himself last season, averaging 10 points and 3 assists per game. He’s capable of much more, and I think we’re going to see an improved guard this season.

Where Michigan is going to be most improved this season is in the supporting cast. Specifically, I’m talking about players like Zak Irvin (who you might consider to be on the same tier as Walton and LeVert), Aubrey Dawkins, Ricky Doyle, Spike Albrecht and Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman.

Irvin said on Thursday last week that he’ll be ready to play “sometime early in the season” as he returns from a back injury suffered late in the summer.

Outside of Irvin, Albrecht and probably Doyle, these weren’t players who were going to normally see such significant playing time on a regular basis.

Unfortunate circumstances forced them into early action, and Michigan will reap the benefits this season.

Freshmen last season played in an average of 38.62 percent of the Wolverines’ possessions and at least 19 minutes per game.

And no, I’m not forgetting players like Kameran Chatman and Mark Donnal. They weren’t as significant as those above them, though, especially for a big like Donnal, this could be a year in which Michigan needs production from a new source of energy.

Next: Football: Wolverines still on B1G title hunt

What I’m getting at here is that the Wolverines have all these proven pieces from the last few seasons, and they’re falling harmoniously into place.

I’m not ready to call my shot yet, but barring disaster, this is going to be a damn good team.

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