Michigan Basketball: 3 takeaways from late loss to Seton Hall

Michigan basketball blew an 11-point lead to Seton Hall at home on Tuesday night and here are three takeaways for the Wolverines.

During the Juwan Howard era, Michigan basketball has gotten off to fast starts. But this is different than any other team Juwan has had an early in the season, and it shows.

Yes, there are veterans such as Hunter Dickinson, Eli Brooks, and Brandon Johns who all started in the NCAA tournament, but Brandon Johns hasn’t played like it and DeVante Jones has been slightly disappointing.

This Michigan basketball team is also very young and we should have realized there would be growing pains. This wasn’t Chaundee Brown and Mike Smith walking into ready-made roles on a team made to win.

Michigan does have the talent to win the Big Ten and do everything we talked about, but the regular season is going to be a learning experience, especially in November and December.

With that in mind, here are three takeaways from the loss to Penn State.

DeVante Jones wasn’t an upgrade

The idea was that Jones would step in for Smith and everything would run smoothly. That was silly and they have always been completely different players.

But I didn’t anticipate Jones having as much trouble handling the ball as he did. Late in the game, Juwan trusted that duty to Eli Brooks often and Jones struggled against the press.

He also fouled way too much. He’s fouled out twice in three games and with the little depth Michigan has in the backcourt, that’s going to hurt the Wolverines.

His fouls late were also costly, especially when Michigan was up one and there wasn’t a ton of time on the shot clock.

It’s a small sample size and Jones could certainly improve. To be fair, he scored 11 points and grabbed 12 rebounds. Smith would have never done that. He’s also a better defender when he isn’t drawing unnecessary fouls.

But through three games, he doesn’t look like a primary point guard in the Big Ten and he hasn’t been. Eli Brooks has shared those duties and that probably won’t change.