Michigan Basketball: Depth chart projections for Wolverines post Franz

SG: Eli Brooks, Zeb Jackson and Kobe Bufkin

As far as the starting job, that will go to Eli Brooks who is returning to the program for the fifth year. Along with Hunter Dickinson, he is one of the guys guaranteed to play the most minutes and since he’s a guard, compared to a big, he will probably lead Michigan in minutes played next year.

Brooks is a solid 3-point shooter (39 percent last season) and averaged three assists, as well as scoring 9.7 points per game last season. His shooting ability will be relied upon even more next season, as will his ability to move the ball and find open guys.

Defensively, Brooks is even more valuable to the Wolverines, which is why he’s probably going to average about 35 minutes a game. There might be times where he plays every single second.

When he does get a rest or shifts over to point guard, the next spot in the rotation likely goes to either Zeb Jackson, who will be entering his sophomore season, or Bufkin, a McDonald’s All-American and a top-50 freshman.

Bufkin feels like the biggest sleeper in this class. He’s outstanding but doesn’t get talked about in the same way as five-stars Caleb Houstan and Moussa Diabate.

Yet, Kobe was really having a strong season before getting injured, however, that shouldn’t affect him at all next season. He will earn minutes, the question is, how many?

And how many of those minutes will come at the expense of Jackson, who is in danger of falling out of relevance in the rotation really quickly if he doesn’t improve.

It really doesn’t feel like Michigan views Jackson as a point guard and honestly, it just feels like Bufkin is a better player, but we’ll see next fall if Zeb is up for the challenge.