Michigan Basketball: Why former Wolverines are thriving in the NBA

Jordan Poole, Franz Wagner, and other former Michigan basketball players are killing it in the NBA right now. Here’s why. 

When college basketball fans and NBA fans think of the schools that churn out the most NBA-quality talent, Kentucky, Duke, Kansas, and North Carolina are usually the schools that come to mind. These schools are the most consistent year-to-year at churning out NBA talent.

These are also the schools that recruit a lot of one-and-done’s, and they are completely okay with it, so it makes sense that these schools have the most former alumni in the NBA. That’s all fine and dandy, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that all of these players pan out.

For every Anthony Davis, Zion Williamson, Karl Anthony-Towns, or Devin Booker, there is always a Skal Labissiere, Jabari Parker, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, or Jahlil Okafor. All of the first four players mentioned were insanely good in college and carried that with them to the pros.

The bottom four players were really good in college but epically failed to live up to the hype in their pro careers. All of these players mentioned still are currently playing in the NBA (except for Skal), but it is fair to say that the last four players haven’t and never will live up to the very high expectations set for them when they were drafted.

All of this is to say just because a player is very talented and productive in college, doesn’t always mean that it will transition to higher levels, and in a lot of cases, we should expect this as fans. Only a select few are able to properly transition and adapt to a higher level of competition and continue their dominance.

But what if the opposite happens? What if a player isn’t as highly productive in college as some of the stars listed above, but, for whatever reason, makes a huge jump in the pros? Well, that’s where Michigan basketball comes in to the picture.

Kentucky and Duke are the two schools that pretty much dwarf any other school in amount of former alumni in the NBA. These two schools are the epitome of one-and-done culture, and even if the player isn’t quite ready for the jump, more than likely, they will be gone, because Kentucky and Duke reload every year, and, there are chances that that player’s spot could be taken, or he could see reduced minutes if he opts to stay the following year.

The reason that Michigan doesn’t have as many (still currently in the top 10) former alumni in the NBA goes all the way back to the John Beilein era. John Beilein had a system in place that allowed for Michigan’s players to come back for multiple years, get better, and the ultimately leave to play in the NBA or go overseas somewhere.

Yes, there was the very rare one-and-done (Ignas Brazdeikis), and the occasional two-and-done players (Trey Burke, Jordan Poole, Franz Wagner), but majority of the time, Michigan basketball players stayed for at least three seasons (usually four to five) and then made the jump to the league.

This is why Kentucky and Duke and these other one-and-done programs have so many more players in the NBA than Michigan.

Michigan might’ve gotten 1-2 players to the NBA a year under Beilein, while Kentucky and Duke might’ve sent 4-5+ players every single draft (including the second round).

Now that Juwan Howard is coaching Michigan basketball, the program will probably see an increase in players leaving early, but even though that may happen more often, there will still be some that stick around for the long haul. But why does it seem that Michigan’s players get even better in the pros?