Michigan Basketball: 3 things to watch vs Saginaw Valley State

Michigan basketball will take the floor Friday night for an exhibition against Saginaw Valley State and here are three things to watch.

The Michigan basketball team doesn’t officially open its season until Tuesday night, however, fans can get their first glimpse of the Wolverines Friday night in an exhibition against Saginaw Valley State.

This will be the first opportunity for the Michigan basketball community to see Juwan Howard, on the floor, as the head coach.

He opened practice last week to the public and he has obviously done press conferences and whatnot, but this will be our first real glimpse of Howard coaching and that’s exciting. There are a lot of changes heading into this season and this is the first look at how it will go.

Of course, Michigan basketball should win the game fairly easy. It’s more of a warm-up for this team and with lots of inexperienced players playing big roles, it could be needed.

There are veterans such as Zavier Simpson, Jon Teske and Isaiah Livers. Eli Brooks, David DeJulius, Brandon Johns and Colin Castleton have also played minutes, even extended minutes in games, yet none of them have been starters or relied on to be key parts of the rotation.

That changes now. The improvement of those players and the effectiveness of Howard as head coach will define this season and whether Michigan can make yet another NCAA tournament appearance.

As far as tonight, here are three things to watch.