Michigan Basketball: Predicting the starting five and two deep
Predicting the starting point guard
Starter: Zavier Simpson
Backups: David Dejulius, Eli Brooks
This is Simpson’s final season with the maize and blue, and it’s building up to being his best yet. In one offseason, Zavier developed an unblockable and deadly hook shot that took the Big Ten by storm. Should Simpson improve his shooting percentage from beyond the arc, this team will be an unstoppable force in conference play.
There's not many players in college basketball more valuable to their own team as Zavier Simpson is to Michigan.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) September 25, 2019
Do everything PG is a combined 63-15 over the past two years as a starter.
Elite Glue Guy.
Behind Zavier is Sophomore David DeJulius, the epitome of Wolverine point guards. DeJulius was rated a 9572 according to 247 sports composite, and he was ranked as the 19th best point guard of the 2018 class.
Behind David is Brooks. Eli had an up and down season in 2018-19, sometimes being reduced to single-digit minutes. He has shown signs of his ability to take a starting role, but with a low floor and a mild ceiling, he will have to take a huge leap to bump ahead of DeJulis. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, Eli might be forced into improving his game on the fly as this team is missing a true shooting guard.
While Eli is ideally kept at point guard, there is a greater need for him at the next position where he might break through in the eyes of Juwan Howard.
Let’s take a look at the starter at the two.