5 thoughts on Michigan Basketball moving forward

Michigan needs to get older

College basketball is a veterans game right now with the transfer portal and the extra COVID year. Michigan basketball struggled this year in large part because it was so young.

That happens though when you sign such large recruiting classes. Jett Howard, Tarris Reed, and Dug McDaniel played a lot as freshmen, then you had Kobe Bufkin and Will Tschetter also playing lots of minutes too.

Of course, if Caleb Houstan or Moussa Diabate had returned, Michigan wouldn’t have been in that tough spot. The four was a huge weakness all year for the Wolverines and if Diabate was back, Michigan would have had an NBA talent. The same goes for Houstan, which could have allowed Jett Howard to come off the bench.

Jett is a great shooter. But he’s not a complete basketball player yet and he’s not alone. Reed struggled with the same issue, although his issue is the offensive end, where Jett needs to improve his defense, awareness, and frankly, effort.

Part of that is being young though. If Michigan is able to get Hunter Dickinson, Bufkin, and Jett back next season, that will go a long way. Regardless, Michigan needs more upperclassmen and more experience, which has hurt each of the past two seasons.