Still hopeful about this season, of course, though Texas Tech looked good today, but Michigan should be at least as good if not better next year with only Matthews expected to leave. Livers will replace him as a starter, as we've already seen when Matthews was out and it didn't make much difference except exacerbating the lack of depth. Poole and Brazdeikis have pro potential, but they still both have room to improve and be more consistent.
The lack of depth issue should be mitigated for next year. Over the off-season, Castleton should further solidify his place as the top backup center and same should go for DeJulius at PG, and then they'd be ready to start their last two years after Simpson and Teske graduate.... The 2/3/4 backups are wide-open, though. Brooks will probably remain the default option unless/until someone else emerges, at least at the 2-spot. Johns will presumably focus on learning the 4-spot this off-season. Nunez could emerge as a viable 2/3 if he puts on enough weight. The two incoming freshmen are 2/3/4 players, and they're fairly highly ranked, but returning players generally get the benefit of the doubt under Beilein so they'll have to prove themselves like Brazdeikis did. With any other transfers, Michigan could add someone late. Apparently they're already looking at a grad transfer from William & Mary and a few other recruits, including Moe Wagner's younger brother, who might just stay in Germany, but Michigan is probably the favorite over Butler and Stanford if he decides to play college basketball.
Not much is known about scheduling yet. Michigan is in the Atlantis tournament, again, in a strong field (Gonzaga, Alabama, North Carolina, Oregon, Iowa State, Seton Hall, and Southern Mississippi for some reason), and also recently scheduled the Ducks in a non-con series with the first one at home. Presumably they'll get a top ACC team other than North Carolina since they've played the past 2 years and the potential to play in Atlantis, be it Duke, Virginia, Florida State, or Virginia Tech, presumably. The other 6 games will probably be guarantee games as was the case this year.
