Michigan Wolverines: Who Replaces the Injured Caris LeVert
By Daniel Tran
Michigan Wolverines guard Caris LeVert is ruled out for the season after suffering a foot injury on Saturday against Northwestern. Who will fill the void for the Wolverines?
The Michigan Wolverines announced that guard Caris LeVert would miss the remainder of the season due to a foot injury he sustained against the Northwestern Wildcats on Saturday. The injured foot is the same foot that was surgically repaired this past May.
Michigan had big expectations for LeVert to become their next perimeter star with the departures of Nik Stauskas and Glenn Robinson III to the NBA. Though the team was not winning games at the pace that Wolverine fans were hoping for, LeVert was doing his fair share and leading Michigan in scoring (14.9 points) and rebounding (4.9 rebounds).
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With LeVert now unavailable, Michigan is looking at a lost season unless their depth (or lack thereof) improves and shows that they can produce. Here are some candidates who Michigan will be depending upon to make up for LeVert’s contributions on the perimeter.
Zak Irvin
Irvin is the most obvious choice to step up his production and become the star that Michigan needs him to be. Irvin is second on the team in scoring with 13.9 points per game and third on the team in rebounding with 4.1 per game.
Listed as both a guard and forward, Irvin can slide into LeVert’s spot at the shooting guard or stay in his customary spot in the wing forward position. Either way, most of LeVert’s 12.3 field goal attempts per game will be now funneled towards him and he will need to improve his three-point field goal percentage where he is currently shooting 35.7 percent.
Irvin needs to find the shooting touch that he had last season when he had a true shooting percentage of 60.6 percent during conference play. Since conference play started, Irvin has averaged 11.2 points game with a true shooting percentage of 46.9 percent. Look for those averages to increase with an increase in his usage and opportunities to score.
Aubrey Dawkins
Will the real Aubrey Dawkins please stand up? After putting up 20 points against Illinois in Michigan’s Big Ten opener, Dawkins has gone on to score 14 points over the next five games. Three of those games, he produced zero points on 0/5 combined shooting.
The numbers do not lie. If Dawkins is aggressive in the minutes that he is given, he can score. The key for Dawkins is remaining confident even if he does not hit his first shot.
In the conference games where he did not score, he attempted less than three shots in each of those games. It seems that Dawkins gets a little gun shy when he does not start the game off well, which could be a problem with the coaching staff yanking him too quickly which affects his confidence or he just needs to start off well in order to produce.
In conference play, Dawkins is actually one of the best shooters that the Michigan Wolverines have. He has a true shooting percentage of 71 percent and an offensive rating of 126. Given more minutes and a longer leash from the coaching staff, Dawkins may be able to play more freely and become a consistently productive player for the team.
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Kameron Chatman
It would be an understatement to say that the 2014-15 season has not gone well for Chatman. Given 10.3 minutes per game in conference play, Chatman has done nothing to prove that he deserves those minutes. With LeVert now out, it does not matter if he is ready or not, he will need to start producing for the Wolverines.
So far in conference play, Chatman has an effective field goal percentage of 36.7 percent, which is near the bottom of the team but still better than starting guard Derrick Walton and has only scored double digits twice this season. Chatman has shown that he can fill in either wing spot, but he needs to display that scoring versatility that made him the 38th best recruit in the 2014 ESPN 100 list.
He has had a slow adjustment to the college game so far, but if Chatman can get on track give this opportunity for more minutes, Michigan may not find themselves in terrible shape.