Early thoughts on Michigan:
PG - Zavier Simpson returns as the starter. He'll continue to be a defensive-minded player, but supposedly his shot has improved, and he became a pretty good driver and passer towards the end of last year. For backup minutes, Jaaron Simmons is gone, but Eli Brooks showed potential even as his minutes declined once BigTen play started. David DeJulius comes in to compete, as well, and is supposedly more skilled. Both of them could also see time at shooting guard.
SG - Abdur-Rahkman is gone, but Jordan Poole should be ready for major minutes so long as he becomes more consistent and isn't a major liability defensively. I think he's a future pro, but probably won't be good enough to pro after this year. Backing him up will be the aforementioned PGs or Adrien Nunez, who is a late pickup from NYC and is hyped up as a great 3 point shooter, along with the size to become a good defender.
SF - Charles Matthews is still the starter here. Hopefully he's improved his shooting and ball control. If so, then he should have a big year, since his defense and rebounding are already quite strong. Highly hyped freshman Ignas Brazdeikis will probably see most of his playing time backing him up. He's supposedly a very offensively skilled player, so hopefully his defense is at least decent.
PF - Isaiah Livers will probably be the nominal starter since he's the only returning player at this position. I expect he'll continue to improve on offense will being a solid defender and rebounder. Brazdeikis will also get backup minutes here, along with Brandon Johns, who was also highly recruited.
C - Jon Teske will take over here, and he played well as a backup last year, especially late, so I'm not too concerned about replacing Wagner. Behind him is Austin Davis, who's not as skilled but should still be decent enough of a defender. Colin Castleton is a skilled freshman center, but like Wagner's first year, it sounds like he won't be ready to play major minutes this year.
As for the schedule:
None of Michigan's guarantee game opponents are that good (Western Michigan, Chattanooga, and Holy Cross being the best, with the others being Norfolk State, Air Force, and Binghamton). @Villanova and home against North Carolina are the toughest games, with the other good games being South Carolina, and neutral site games vs George Washington and Providence or South Carolina, again. Point being, they should go 10-2 if not 11-1 in non-con play.
I think they can go 14-6 or 15-5 in the BigTen, as well. They avoid trips to Lincoln, West Lafayette, and Columbus, though they also don't get home games against Illinois, Iowa, and Rutgers.
Depending on the BigTen tournament results, which they've won the past 2 years despite playing 4 games both times, that would get them to something like 26-8, which should be good enough for a top 4/5 seed.
