Michigan Basketball: 3 things we learned in costly loss to Illinois

The problem isn’t Juwan

While this run has been disappointing, this team caused expectations to get out of hand following its run at the Battle 4 Atlantis. North Carolina turned out to be a fraud and so really, one win over Gonzaga made this team appear to be better than it was.

Now, the injury to Livers was the one thing that sent the season in a downward spiral. He’s the glue that holds it all together because this team simply isn’t deep enough or talented enough without him.

When you really get down to it, outside of Livers and maybe DeJulius, you don’t have a guy that can get his own at any time. Thankfully, that will change next season, but when Simpson and Teske are your best offensive options, that’s not a promising thing.

Simpson is a facilitator, not a scorer and Teske is a secondary piece at best. Trying to force them to carry the load offensively just isn’t going to cut it against top-tier teams in the Big Ten.

With Livers, Michigan has enough shooting and defense to be a top-25 team, but without him, the Wolverines are mediocre at best. Howard has his team competing and the bottom line is that if his team could make free throws, it would have won.

So there is no reason to panic at this point, but if the losses keep piling up, you wonder if recruits like Isaiah Todd might take a second look at Michigan basketball.