MICHIGAN'S MEN'S BASKETBALL: 2015-2016

[Hannibal]

Next year is this exact same team, minus probably one or two disgruntled departures, plus freshmen.

Excuse makers will face one of their greatest challenges yet.

[Jeff Buchanan]

....... And with an intensity unknown to mankind.

Look, I don't know squat about basketball. What I do know is that Michigan represents excellence in everything it does. Following this thread makes it pretty obvious to me, JB isn't delivering it. Sucks he just got a contract extension. I'm not sure Manuel is going to sit on him if this continues into next season and, again, from what I'm reading here, it will.

[Hannibal]

There are way too many basketball fans with the low standards mgoblog mentality. I think that this is mostly people 35 and under who have little or no memory of the Fab Five or the 1989 championship. To them, the Brian Ellerbe era is the baseline expectation of the program.

[Cody_Russell]

Michigan probably loses at Cincinatti next year, there is one loss.
I'd predict a similar record.
Players currently on this team will have to make a Stauskas freshman to sophomore year jump in how good they are... If Michigan is going to contend with this core.

I think 12-6 in B10 play next season is a possibility, but a more accurate guess would be 11-7 or 10-8 again.
All depends on internal development and how good the 2016 class is.

[jaadam4]

Wow.. so basically the basketball and football teams have swapped personas from the last several years.

[WM Wolverine]

Basketball team is on the road to mediocrity. Beilein never was able to take advantage of going to the NT game and the Elite Eight in back-to-back seasons. Blue chippers take notice but always land elsewhere.

[hack]

What we know is that there are going to be excuses. Sure, this wasn't going to be a Final Four team this year. But just because it can't live up to expectations doesn't mean it has to completely shit the bed, or that it has to be so damn soft that the broadcast team talks about it every game. With or without LeVert, it's been since 2014 that a Beilein team 't played with the toughness and resilience necessary to win. On paper, this team is very much like the '11 team -- on the bubble, 20 wins, ~.500 in conference. THAT team played hard. Won in Lansing for the first time in 15 years and later Darius Morris told Sparty to get the fuck off my court.

Let's take a look at the recruits: Morris was a 3/4 star, and Smotrych a marginally useful four-star freshman, and other than that it was a bunch of three-stars like Morgan and Hardaway, and guys nobody really wanted, like Novak and Douglass.

This year, on the other hand, Irvin was a five-star recruit, Walton a top-50, Donnall top-100. Already that's significantly more talent by recruiting rankings alone, and doesn't factor in that LeVert is an NBA talent or that this team has the upperclassmen. Youth used to be the excuse, but no longer.

Anyhow, I think the bottom line is that if you want to prattle on about injuries you can, but until we get back to a place in which the team goes out there and plays hard, like the players we had a while back who weren't NBA calibre but played hard, that's the story here. As Beilein has ramped up recruiting he's shifted from scrappy overachievers to soft underachievers. That's the real story here. I agree that the future looks bleak. Beilein can turn that around in a hurry by reshuffling his staff, which seems to be something the blogger community expects.

[WM Wolverine]

This is all on JB, it's his hand selected team. I still think some severely underestimate the loss of Levert. He's an All B1G talent who was putting up nearly 20/5/5 every night and one of the few playing good defense. Even with him, I don't think this team was going to be quite good enough to play at the level we want/expect; Elite Eight, contend for FF... M basketball for most of the 80's through the mid 90's was really good, there isn't much reason we can't be a top 10 program in basketball...

Next year will be a team that will have Walton & Irvin as seniors with a ton of others returning, next season should be a 'peak' season. If next seasons team doesn't accomplish much, JB probably will want to step aside in favor of one of his assistants...

The 'talent' I saw on the floor this season wasn't remotely impressive to me, I could care less about recruiting rankings. Zak Irvin looked like the only NBA talent and I don't think he'll have a significant NBA career. His shot is good enough that he'll carve himself a niche as a 3pt specialist. In defense of him, he's playing the difficult GR3 role of defending the oppositions PF too often though I thought he held up quite well considering....

After Irvin however, there isn't much talent there (Walton is solid-to-good) and I'd agree that the 'toughness' is lacking. I see lots of mediocrity in our future unless JB can strike gold and find another Trey Burke (Simpson?) and figure out you need to play defense.

[hack]

I think that upthread you'll see expectations roughly of sweet16/back half of the top 25 this year. Roughly in line with their preseason ranking at around 20ish.

IMO even with LeVert they are only a game or two better than they are now. The defense is so bad. About half the losses this year were assrapings.

[hack]

Agreed that if next season is the same Beilein could start thinking about his endgame here. Under no circumstances do I just hand it to LaVall Jordan though. That shouldn't at all be a gimme.

[Niffla]

IMO Irvin's not NBA material at all. He may make a training camp roster but I seriously doubt he'll ever be in an NBA rotation.

[Cody_Russell]

Irvin isn't a good enough shooter. That's one thing you would expect from his position.
60% FT shooter, probably not that good of a 3 PT shooter.

[hack]

Irvin's a curious case. I think given that everyone has been struggling with the 3 for a month now, you can't just assume Irvin's a bad shooter. The team isn't getting a ton of good looks and as a group they've rushed the ones they've had. Irvin's also really solid from 15 on those dribble moves. Very drilled. Ultimately I think he's going to look a lot better in a program that stresses effort and defense, because he just kinda looks really casual out there. I think his 3 plus his ability to move the ball and decent enough athleticism makes him a solid NBA bench shooter.

[paul daugherity]

Max Biefeldt won the Big Ten 6th man of the year. Good thing Beilein let him go. Especially since his scholarship was left vacant. I can't believe how incompetent Beilein is looking of late.

[WM Wolverine]

He's the type of player you shouldn't miss much but when you have a frontcourt like M's, he would've helped a lot. His scholarship was suppose to go where?