Michigan Basketball: Grading Wolverines loss to Seton Hall
Handing out individual grades for Michigan basketball players from the loss to Seton Hall as the Wolverines get ready to head to Las Vegas.
It wasn’t fun to look back at Michigan basketball‘s loss to Seton Hall. It was a game the Wolverines should have won.
But there were too many missed shots and defensive mistakes. It’s clear after three games that the Wolverines have vast potential. They are also wildly inconsistent and have some holes.
It remains to be seen if they can all be filled with the current roster. But every team is going to have a potential weakness or two.
At any rate, Michigan basketball is back on the floor Friday night in Las Vegas — technically Saturday morning 12:30 AM EST — and before we look ahead to a matchup with UNLV here are the grades for Seton Hall.
Guards
Eli Brooks: A-
Brooks wasn’t perfect against Seton Hall. He shot less than 50 percent from the field but he made a 3-pointer and scored some key buckets when no one else seemed able to. His defense was stellar and he notched three steals, four assists, and seven boards. Hunter Dickinson is the best player on this team — Brooks is the most important.
DeVante Jones: C
Jones didn’t have a terrible game. He actually played pretty well for stretches but the late foul was costly when Michigan basketball was up one and he was sloppy on offense with three turnovers. He did score 11 points, dished out three assists, and had 11 rebounds, but he doesn’t look like a Big Ten point guard to me. Eli and Jones are splitting it at best and Michigan is going to have to get used to playing with a point guard who isn’t a great ball-handler. He does a lot of things well but controlling the game from the point guard position, as Mike Smith did, isn’t one of them.
Kobe Bufkin: B
Juwan Howard was short with his bench and only played eight guys. One of them was Kobe Bufkin who notched a steal-and-score in the first half and also had a stellar drive to the bucket for two. He looked much more confident and it was a positive sign because the Wolverines are going to need him to mature quickly. His scoring and ball-handling could help address two issues early.