Michigan Basketball: Maybe Mike Smith won’t start at point guard this season
By Max S.
Michigan basketball will officially start practicing next week. That means starting five speculation season also officially begins.
Over the last month or so I have been pretty adamant that I thought Mike Smith would win the starting point guard spot for Michigan basketball this season. I thought that he was the most natural point guard on the roster and would give this team some much needed scoring from the point guard spot.
Maybe I was wrong. Something caught my eye the other day as I was reading a piece from TheWolverine’s Chris Balas. Michigan assistant coach Phil Martelli spoke on all of Michigan’s newcomers and had this to say about Mike Smith($):
"“Mike Smith has as pretty a deep jumper as I’ve been around,” Martelli praised. “It’s a beautiful, beautiful shot. This summer, I watched him closely at times when he really got in the lane.”He needs to pick up his defense — he wasn’t asked to guard much in the Ivy League as the team’s only scorer— and it will be “interesting to see how he finishes,” Martelli added.“We know he can score, but we don’t know how he finishes in the lane,” he said. “For a guy who was not a very good shooter, Xavier Simpson, his finishes around rim were just extraordinary. To me, that will be a measuring stick for Mike.”"
Maybe, it’s just me, but that certainly doesn’t sound like a guy who has locked up the starting point guard spot.
Questions about Smith’s defense and finishing in the lane have been raised by the media and by fans ever since Smith announced he would be joining Michigan basketball. Now, assistant coach Phil Martelli has confirmed those questions.
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Don’t get me wrong. The quote by Martelli was mainly positive and there was a lot of really encouraging stuff in there. And maybe that quote was meant as motivation for Smith to keep working on his defense and other aspects of his game. But to me, that sounds like the point guard battle is still up in the air.
The fact is, Michigan will likely have three guards who are quality and very capable starters fighting for two starting spots. There will be an odd man out. Chaundee Brown, Eli Brooks, and Mike Smith are all former starters and high minute players.
Somebody may have to embrace a new role and be more of a spark off the bench. I previously thought that guy would be Chaundee Brown but Mike Smith is very capable of playing that role.
If Michigan decides to roll with a starting backcourt of Eli Brooks and Chaundee Brown with Smith as the sixth man, that’s a backcourt full of leadership, experience and high level defense.
The battle to win the starting point guard spot will be fun to watch in the coming weeks as the season gets closer.
Next. 5 Bold Predictions for 2020-21 season. dark
There is still a lot of uncertainties with this roster and with this backcourt but one thing is for sure, Juwan Howard has a lot of options. Having options is usually a good thing and it will be Howard’s job to make sure the pieces to the puzzle fit together for Michigan basketball this season.