It is officially April and the College Basketball season has ended. In the same vein that The Floor Slap did season previews and in season spotlights for every team in the Big Ten, now it’s time to look back on everyone’s season and reflect. Going from the Bottom to the Top in the standings, we will be releasing Exit Survey’s for all 14 teams in the conference. Today, we have the 8th place Michigan Wolverines.
Preseason
Preseason Expectations for Juwan Howard and Michigan were high.
Before Caleb Houstan and Moussa Diabate decided to stay in the draft people believed the Wolverines were Final Four contenders.
Despite less than favorable projections, both of them stayed. Houstan went in the second round and Diabate went undrafted and signed with the Clippers.
Still, Michigan had a stellar recruiting class coming in to join the likes of fan favorite Kobe Bufkin and All American center Hunter Dickinson. Juwan’s son, Jett Howard, was a stud wing from IMG academy who figured to replace Houstan.
Tarris Reed was a 4-Star Center who would be a great backup for Michigan. On many nights, Michigan’s backup big would be better than the starter for their opponent. Very valuable in the Big Ten.
Greg Glenn was a 4-Star PF who figured to replace the Diabate and Brandon Johns. Dug McDaniel was a 4-Star G who Michigan hoped could be a sparkplug scorer off the bench.
Juwan Howard also enlisted two transfers to add some veterans.
Jaelin Llewellyn was a double digit scorer at Princeton who would stabilize the backcourt after losing DeVante Jones and Eli Brooks. Joey Baker was a Duke transfer who brings pedigree, talent, depth, whatever you want to say to the forward spot.
You could see the outlines of what this team was supposed to be.
Michigan might not be the favorite to win the Big Ten like Indiana was, but they were lurking right there behind them with Illinois.
My preview focused on the idea that 2021-22 Michigan failed because Howard wasn’t able to prep his stud recruiting class to make the jump to college. In the 2022-23 season it would be imperative for Howard to learn from that mistake and get this year’s stud class ready to make that leap.
As a mainly NBA coach with little college coaching experience, it’s okay to make that mistake once, but repeat it and that’s when the fans will get upset
The Season
Going to be short here because I went long on the preseason/post season parts and because Michigan’s season kind of sucked.
Michigan got off to a rocky start. Some of the unproven guys looked like it early on. Bufkin and Jett Howard might not have been ready yet.
Michigan got demolished by a meh Arizona State team early in the season.
The Wolverines showed their potential in back to back games to UVA and Kentucky. They had a shot at the buzzer against no.3 UVA to win and were in a two possession game with Wildcats.
Both of them were losses, but Michigan had a formula. Run the ball thru Dickinson in the post and have Jett and Bufkin be co-stars.
The season turned after these games with Jaelin Llewellyn exiting the season with a knee injury.
Michigan lost a veteran presence and starting guard. Dug McDaniel was now thrust into a starting role. Kobe Bufkin was going to have to be the guy running the show.
Michigan responded with two wins over bad teams in Minnesota and Lipscomb, but then lost to (what turned out to be a bad team in) UNC and in embarrassing fashion to a bad Central Michigan team in Ann Arbor.
Michigan and Juwan Howard were failing.
Players were scoring… just inefficiently. Howard shot 11 threes and made 2 in the loss to the freaking Chippewas.
Nobody on the bench was providing anything. Not Isaiah Barnes, Jace Howard, Joey Baker, Tarris Reed. Nobody.
Guys weren’t ready for their roles or their roles weren’t defined.
The Wolverines were not playing through their best player as Dickinson only had 22 points on 18 combined shots in the two losses despite playing 60 minutes.
A ranked preseason team was 7-5 and had a mountain to climb to make the tournament.
So what happened?
Michigan got better.
They played thru Dickinson more. He rebounded the next game with 32 points in a rout of Maryland.
Howard, McDaniel, Bufkin started to get more comfortable in their roles. Michigan went 3-2 in their next 5 games in the Big Ten.
Still, they weren’t a finished product and the Wolverines dropped 3 of their next 4 with the only win being against Minnesota. Juwan Howard’s team were 11-10 and were firmly outside the March Madness discussion. Like outside the “next four out” discussion bad.
This is when things really started to click for Kobe Bufkin and Michigan went on a run.
Michigan won 6 of their next 8 games with wins over Northwestern, Wisconsin, and rivals Ohio State and Michigan State. Bufkin stared to be that guy and averaged 16.9 ppg, 3.25 apg and 4.25 rpg during this stretch.
Even with Bufkin being a star, Michigan dropped the ball and lost their final two games of the regular season to Illinois and a second heartbreaker to IU.
Michigan had four overtimes in their last three regular season games and went 1-2 in them.
The Wolverines lost to Rutgers in their first game in the Big Ten Tournament and their March Madness hopes were terminated.
Post Season
Michigan earned a spot in the NIT won against Toledo in the first round and lost to Vanderbilt in Nashville. Who cares? Michigan fans sure didn’t.
This was a failed season for Michigan and another disappointing season for Juwan Howard.
It got worse after the season ended.
Shockingly, three time All-Big Ten player Hunter Dickinson entered the transfer portal. Then, Kobe Bufkin entered the NBA draft while forgoing his remaining eligibility the same week.
Michigan would lose its top three players in Dickinson, Bufkin, and Jett Howard (who also declared) heading into the next season.
Add in that Freshman big Glenn transferred to Tulane and that incoming big Papa Kante decommitted and Michigan’s frontcourt was suddenly thin, too.
A lack of roster continuity was a huge reason Michigan didn’t succeed this season.
So, how do you combat roster inconsistency? By grabbing experienced players in the portal.
Michigan has added three players in the portal so far:
- Tray Jackson, a fifth year player from Seton Hall and Missouri
- Nimari Burnett, a third year player from Alabama and Texas Tech
- Caleb Love, a fourth year player from North Carolina
Michigan grabbed experienced players out of the portal to help alleviate some of the growing pains of the previous years.
Jackson and Burnett are career 5ppg type players who aren’t going to be superstars, but won’t be shellshocked like a freshman might be by the physicality or being in late game scenarios.
Caleb Love is a player Juwan Howard can build his team around next season.
Yet, this pairing seems like a train wreck waiting to happen. Juwan Howard feels destined to be another coach who doesn’t tell Love no.
Love shot less than 30% from three while taking 7.4 of them a game last year. Not exactly efficient. Howard let his son take 7.3 on a team with Hunter Dickinson and Kobe Bufkin this year.
How many shots will Love jack on a team with much less talent? Will Love’s ball hogging alienate any teammates?
The future of the program and Juwan Howard is murky.
The apex mountain of Howard in the Elite Eight against UCLA seems forever ago.
Last week, Dickinson finally committed to Kansas for his Senior season. Of course you want to keep guys like Dickinson at your program, but maybe things had run their course at Ann Arbor.
It must infuriate fans to see many of the articles talk about how Dickinson is going to Kansas to compete for a National Championship.
That is what they expect players to do at Michigan.
Michigan has had two disappointing seasons in a row. Two years ago the fans could cling to a Sweet 16 run to distract from the bad regular season. This year the fans watched a team with two first rounders and an All-American in Dickinson not make the NCAA tournament.
Having two first rounders in the NBA draft will be a win for Howard, and to his credit, Juwan Howard has had real success in the tournament when he has made it.
However, he has to make the tournament. You cannot miss the tournament multiple years in a row at Michigan.
After losing plenty of talent once again, Howard will be heavily relying on Caleb Love to drag this Michigan team for a successful season. That is a scary thought.
Juwan Howard’s job security might be decided by Caleb Love being a consistently good player… Good luck.