Michigan Basketball: The roster isn’t as young as we think

Yesterday was a great day to be a Michigan basketball fan. DeVante Jones decided to pull his name out of the draft and enroll at Michigan, and then Hunter Dickinson pulled his name out a day after.

If you add it all up, the Wolverines will be one of the most talented teams in the country this upcoming season. But there are some media analysts out there that are saying that because Michigan basketball lost Isaiah Livers, Chaundee Brown, Franz Wagner, and Mike Smith, they have no chance of being a great team just like last season.

While it is true that Michigan basketball lost A LOT of production and talent from last season’s Elite Eight team, and that definitely can’t be understated, at the same time, the team isn’t as young and as inexperienced as the media keeps claiming they are.

Out of Michigan’s most likely starting five of DeVante Jones, Eli Brooks, Caleb Houstan, Brandon Johns, and Hunter Dickinson, only one of those players has never actually started a college basketball game, and he may be the best player of the group.

If we look into it even further, Michigan has experience (non-first-year players) at three of the most important positions on the court which are the two guards spots and the center position.

Out of 14 scholarship players, I counted only five that were first-year players, and only one of those players (Caleb Houstan) is a projected starter for this upcoming season.

Michigan basketball is experienced

Yes, we won’t ultimately know how good DeVante Jones can really be until he actually suits up for U-M and plays some games, but he is still an experienced guard who has started for multiple seasons and was Sun Belt Player of the Year last year.

The media sometimes blows things out of proportion. Yes, Michigan is a younger team than it was last season, but that happens pretty much every season.

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You lose some players, you gain some. That shouldn’t detract from the overall talent on the roster, and 80% of the projected starters being multi-start college basketball players.

I don’t know if we’ll ever see Juwan Howard pull a Duke or Kentucky and start almost all freshmen at once. That will probably never happen. Howard definitely likes his younger guys, but he isn’t just going to throw them into the ringer when they aren’t ready.

Juwan is a veteran basketball coach, with a veteran mind, who likes veteran players on his team. He’ll always have some veterans starting or getting heavy minutes off the bench.

Whether that be through the transfer portal or guys coming back another year, you won’t see Juwan throw out an all-18-year-old freshmen lineup.

With all of this being said, should we expect some growing pains? Of course, we should. I wouldn’t say I expect Michigan to start the season on that long winning streak like it did last season.

The Wolverines have some tough games on the docket right off the bat. I still expect U-M to be a top-10 team though. Yet, two of the five projected starters have never played a real game with each other.

They don’t know each other’s tendencies, weaknesses, or strengths. It always takes time to mesh. But other veterans on the team can help remedy and speed up the timeline and help get past the growing pains.

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So when these national media analysts are hesitant to pick Michigan as a potential Big Ten regular-season champ or a Final Four squad, they need to remember U-M that has only five scholarship freshmen and a mix of veterans elsewhere at the most crucial positions.

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