John Beilein knew his first season as coach at Michigan could be a long one as his players adjusted to his style of a perimeter-oriented offense and a defense that relied on a 1-3-1 zone.
Thus, Beilein wasn't overly surprised that Michigan went only 10-22 against one of the more rugged schedules in the nation while finishing the season with only eight scholarship players. The Wolverines had losing streaks of six, five and four games, and their low point might have come in the season finale, a 51-34 loss to Wisconsin in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament.
While Michigan struggled to pick up on Beilein's style of play, the good news is that nine of the Wolverines' top 10 players will be back next season, including the dynamic inside/outside duo of freshman guard Manny Harris and sophomore forward DeShawn Sims.
Harris averaged 16.1 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.7 assists a game, while Sims had averages of 12.3 points and 5.4 rebounds. Harris has a chance to be one of the conference's best players.
The rest of the starting lineup will also be back, in sophomore forward Epke Udoh (6.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, 2.9 blocked shots), freshman forward Anthony Wright (5.1 points) and freshman guard Kelvin Grady (5.6 points, 2.8 assists).
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Ekpe Udoh decides to leave Michigan. His presence will be missed on the defensive end of the ball but this will give a chance for our new 7-footer "Cronin" to come in and start right away.
Chicago may be interested in Tom Izzo. How big would this be for UM's basketball program? With Izzo's departure, I think Beilein could take a lot of in-state kids away from East Lansing and really turn around UM basketball in a hurry.
Hopefully Rick Carlisle will turn down the Bulls job.
Former Michigan great and leader of the famous Fab-Five Chris Webber has called it quits after 15 seasons in the NBA. I'm not sure how many of you Wolverine fans like C-Webb or hate him. I'm a huge fan of Mayce Edward Christopher Webber III and can say proudly has been my favorite athlete over the past 20 years in any sport.
Yes that's right I'm proud to be a Michigan Wolverine. Today's win over Iowa in the Big 10 tournament was great to see and hopefully it becomes a huge step forward for next years season.
The Wolverine Basketball program is still a couple of years away from becoming a legit contender in the Big 10 but I honestly feel Belien is the right coach to get the Michig
I believe with everyone back and a nice recruiting year (4 recruits) we will make the jump to the top half of the Big Ten. Beilein will continue to build this program. The only thing that hold him back will be if he doesn't get the backing from Michigan (New practicefacility and huge upgrade of Crisler)... We ne
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