Michigan Basketball: Wolverines won’t be badly affected by Jordan Poole leaving

Jordan Poole announced Tuesday that he was going to stay in the NBA Draft, ending his career at Michigan Basketball. How much will this hurt the Wolverines chances for next year?

After the season it surprised no one that Charles Matthews declared for the draft. He still had one more year of eligibility left, but after testing the NBA Draft waters next year, it was assumed he was gone. It came as little surprise that Ignas Brazadeikis and Jordan Poole joined him. Many thought they would try the waters, but could eventually return next year for the Wolverines in what looked like a top-five team if they returned. Brazdeikis sounds like a man staying in the draft but he hasn’t made it official, but on Tuesday Poole made it official he was not coming back.

On the surface, this is a big blow for the Wolverines. Poole averaged 12.8 points per game last year and showed flashes of being able to take over a game. When he got hot from the outside he was tough to stop. He had a two-game stretch against Purdue and North Carolina where he went a combined 10-13 from outside that helped lead the Wolverines to two blowout wins. He scored 26 against South Carolina in that win and added 22 points to help carry Michigan to win late against Minnesota.

Even with his stellar play during stretches this year he is always going to be remembered for the deep buzzer-beating three he hit in the second round against Houston in the 2018 NCAA tournament. The Wolverines would ride that momentum to the national title game. It is a shot that rivals Trey Burke’s deep three to tie the game against Kansas way back in 2013.

More from Busting Brackets

• Oregon Basketball: Projected starting lineup and depth chart for 2023-24
• Big East Basketball: Ranking all head coaches going into 2023-24 season
• Florida State Basketball: Is Seminoles roster good enough to win in 2023-24?
• SEC Basketball: 10 potential additions for the league if they ever expanded
• NCAA Basketball Recruiting: Analyzing top 5 teams for 4-star PG Jeremiah Johnson

Poole showed a knack for being able to get to the basket and finish and he has a pretty good mid-range game also. The Wolverines will definitely miss that about him, but the fact that he would disappear for long stretched during the game will not be missed.

Poole fell in love with his offensive game at times and had the tendency to take some really bad shots. He would hit a couple and think he would be on fire and continue to shoot no matter if he was guarded or not. If the Wolverine offense bogged down it could usually be traced back to Poole thinking he needed to do it all. At times he could do it all and Michigan won games because of it. But would the offense have run more smoothly had he not been on the court?

The question will be answered soon enough, but one still has to wonder if this actually might be a good thing for the flow of the offense that he is joining the NBA. The other big question mark was his defense. Michigan was a great defensive team last year so they could hide one guy that was not as good and more times than not that was Poole when he was on the court. As the season went on he seemed to get a little bit lazier and lazier on the defensive end and that hurt the Wolverines.

Poole is a great athlete and when he wanted to could be a force on both sides of the ball. The problem was he wasn’t always focused to do that.

Michigan will miss his production that is for sure, but how much is the big question. Poole was a very good player and his infectious attitude when things were going right fueled the Wolverines to a handful of wins during his time. He has every right to chase his dream and the Wolverines wish him nothing but the best.

But in a time when the Wolverines are being viewed as a team losing a lot, they might not be losing as much as it appears. The thing that many have learned is that John Beilein will replace him and coach them up and keep Michigan at the top of the Big Ten. The Wolverines will miss Poole, but they may be a better team without him.