Michigan Basketball: Unraveling the Wolverines preseason starting lineup

Michigan basketball took part in an exhibition game Friday night and here’s what to make out of the Wolverines preseason lineups.

It has been an interesting offseason, to say the least for the Michigan basketball program.

Franz Wagner and Brandon Johns Jr. were sidelined with injuries, however, some good news did arise when Juwan Howard earned his first legitimate recruit when 5-star PF Isaiah Todd chose to commit to the Wolverines, becoming the highest-rated player to join the program in quite some time.

Michigan basketball has had a relatively busy preseason, in preparation for their season-opener against Appalachian State, yet, despite the active scrimmages such as their match-up against Detroit Mercy, their inter-squad game, and Saginaw Valley State, Michigan had made little adjustments to the starting five:

In Michigan’s scrimmage against Detroit Mercy, due to the injuries to Wagner and Johns (two potential starters to the team), Howard inserted Eli Brooks and Adrien Nunez to the starting five, emphasizing Howard’s philosophy of implementing “Position-less Basketball” to the program.

According to Brendan Quinn of The Athletic, in the scrimmage that was not open to the public, the Wolverines were able to come away with the 82-75 victory, with David DeJulius leading in scoring with 21 points, off the bench.

Despite DeJulius’ performance, Howard elected to keep the starting lineup the same in their inter-squad game as one side featured the starting lineup from before, while the other team had DeJulius paired with CJ Baird, Cole Bajema, Colin Castleton, and Austin Davis.

What does this mean?

Finally, in Michigan’s final tune-up against the Saginaw Valley State, the starting lineup remained the same:

Here’s a look at what it all means.