Michigan Basketball: 3 Things to expect for Wolverines 2020-21 season

Less systematic offense

For years we’ve heard Tom Brady is a system quarterback that can’t excel without the brilliant football mind that is Bill Belichick. The system being a carefully crafted playbook in which the decisions are taken almost entirely out of the quarterback’s hands. This is also prevalent in college basketball and it’s meant to take a bunch of guys who are really good, but not great, and still have them perform at a superior level.

At Michigan, John Beilein preached fundamentals and his system of play. That’s not the way it works in the NBA.

Players at the next level aren’t taking calls from a helicopter coach. You don’t see James Harden or LeBron James looking to the bench for guidance; they see the defense and attack.

For the Wolverines, 2020-21 will become a completely different animal in terms of the offense. Sure, there will be the pick-and-rolls, pick-and-pops, etc, but the game will be determined even more on the court by the floor general, which we saw quite a bit of as the Wolverines started the transformation to the new offense this year.

“The vibe is a lot different,” Simpson said before the first game. “It’s definitely a positive vibe. [There’s] lots of energy going on. Juwan brings lots of energy. I’m excited for this season.”

Systems are meant to provide left and right lateral limits on what a player can and cannot do. That’s not the direction Juwan Howard is taking as he implements an NBA style of offense in Ann Arbor.