Michigan Basketball: 3 ways Wolverines can improve next season

Michigan Basketball has a bright future depending on who all returns next season but even with all the moving pieces, here’s how the Wolverines can improve.

It’s hard to be disappointed about a season that includes 30 wins and a trip to the Sweet 16. Yet, when it comes to Michigan basketball, that’s exactly the feeling — disappointment.

Don’t get me wrong, the 2018-19 season brought a lot of great moments for Michigan basketball fans. The wins over Villanova and North Carolina were special. Getting to a third straight Big Ten championship game and getting to the Sweet 16 for the third time also mattered.

Those are real accomplishments. It’s hard making the Sweet 16 even back-to-back years and getting there three straight times is something Michigan basketball hasn’t done since the days of Jalen Rose and Juwan Howard.

However, the disappointment comes in knowing that this team could have done more. For some reason, it just peaked too early. It played its best during the first two months of the season and after starting 17-0 and getting ranked as high as No. 2 in the country, it never reached that same level again.

There were still good wins, a lot of them. Michigan swept Maryland and beat Minnesota three times. The Wolverines also swept Indiana, beat Wisconsin and Iowa, as well as Ohio State.

But the Wolverines failed to beat Michigan State three times and each time, it was the offense that let them down, just like it let Michigan basketball down in the Sweet 16.

The Wolverines played well defensively, but they couldn’t make a shot against Texas Tech and therefore they had no shot of scoring the 65 points or so needed to win the game.

Now, once again, John Beilein and Michigan must play the waiting game. It waited for D.J. Wilson and Moritz Wagner the past couple years, as well as Charles Matthews. Matthews is expected to go this time around, but others that could declare and play the waiting game are Ignas Brazdeikis and Jordan Poole.

Whether or not those guys are back, the options for getting better are the same and here is a look at the three things Michigan basketball can do to be better in 2019-20.