How will Michigan Basketball replace Frankie Collins?

In-House Options

If Michigan basketball chooses to stand pat and rely on players currently on their roster, the majority of that responsibility could fall on true freshman point guard Dug McDaniel.

McDaniel, a Top-100 recruit himself, is an outstanding distributor and ball-handler but lacks the size you would like, especially in the Big Ten.

He also is not much of an outside shooter yet and, because of his stature, doesn’t project as much of a defender in year one in Ann Arbor.

Leaning on a young player with as many question marks as McDaniel is not a viable option.

Maybe Juwan Howard will elect to lean on new addition Jaelin Llewellyn.

That doesn’t appear to be much of an option at this point either as Llewellyn has not recorded more than seven assists in a game since his freshman season in ’18-’19.

That may have something to do with the fact that he didn’t play with much talent around him at Princeton, but when you consider that Devante Jones’ high watermark in assists was 10, and Mike Smith’s was nine at Coastal Carolina and Columbia, respectively, his ability to direct an offense as the lead playmaker comes into question.

This is not to say that Llewellyn could not improve, as Mike Smith’s season-high in assists at Michigan was 15 and Devante Jones had multiple double-digit assist games as well in Ann Arbor.

But is banking on drastic playmaking improvement really the best that Michigan basketball can do when their track record with transfer point guards has been so strong over the past two seasons?

I don’t think so.