Michigan Basketball: Could the Wolverines be in store for a rebuilding year?

With just one starter returning from a sweet 16 tournament squad, Juwan Howard’s fourth season with Michigan basketball could contain some growing pains.

DeVante’ Jones, Eli Brooks, Caleb Houstan and Moussa Diabate are all gone from last season’s Michigan basketball core that finished four games above .500. They struggled to mesh up until about halfway through the campaign. Wins at Indiana, Iowa and Ohio State, combined with home victories over Purdue and Michigan State helped them realize their lofty potential coming into 2021. A year later and on paper they appear to have a different forecast.

The top returning scorer in all major conferences, Hunter Dickinson, is back and working to improve even more, which is a scary thought for opponents. He’s the clear-cut leader who shot 33% from deep in a career defining year for the seven-footer. His next goal should be to become Big Ten player of the year if things go according to plan.

Jett Howard is poised to be the second go-to-guy behind Dickinson even though he hasn’t played a lick of meaningful college basketball yet. In the way too early 2023 mock drafts he was projected to be taken in the lottery, but that has since changed with others emerging ahead of him. Some analysts have him in better positioning for the 2024 draft and that may make more sense with his dad coaching him unless he explodes on to the scene immediately.

His 30 points in the exhibition win over Ferris State for Michigan basketball should signify to the college basketball landscape that its going to be a sign of things to come. He caught the attention of Jon Rothstein who praised him as one of the country’s chief freshman. However being a day one starter and an incoming top 50 consensus recruit puts a lot of pressure on the youngest of the Howard legacy, and we all saw first hand what that did for Caleb Houstan and Moussa Diabate.

Kobe Bufkin has to be the x-factor in the lineup. If he can excel, along with Dickinson and Howard, then things will likely go swimmingly. Jaelin Llewellyn is the unknown commodity in all of this. He is the next transfer in line at point guard to follow in the footsteps of Mike Smith and DeVante’ Jones. He averaged 15 points in matchups with Minnesota, Oregon State and VCU while at Princeton.

The key reserves are young, but guys like Joey Baker brings his Duke experience and Jace Howard will do the tough things that nobody wants to do. Something to keep track of would be if someone can give coach Howard minutes behind Dickinson or will he lean on him for 30 to 40 minutes a night. Tarris Reed Jr. will most likely be the one that they call upon to do that.

To sum things up though its unlikely that Michigan basketball drops off that much. Coach Howard is a proven coach who is in the upper echelon of coaches. His staff knows how to succeed when he missed time last year. So don’t worry if it may take some time to gel, because Michigan basketball should contend for March Madness and possibly even the Big Ten like nothing has changed.