Big Ten Basketball: Projecting each team’s key player production for 2021-22

Michigan – Eli Brooks and Brandon Johns Jr.

Decrease in production: Eli Brooks

The Michigan Wolverines will not have Franz Wagner (12.5 ppg), Isaiah Livers (13.1 ppg) or Mike Smith (9.0 ppg) returning to their starting line-up this season. That is a fair amount of shot attempts and points that need to be accounted for, which in turn will provide an opportunity for an increase in the production for the current roster.

With Hunter Dickinson primed to increase his 14 points per game, plus the arrival of DeVante Jones from Coastal Carolina into the starting lineup, as well No. 3 ranked recruit Caleb Houston it should be easy to find a player that will not produce as they did last season. Head coach Juwan Howard really only ran out three players off the bench, two of which are not returning, so all that is really left is for a starter to suffer a decrease in production from the arrival of the new starters.

That starter will be Eli Brooks, but not by much, and the Wolverines will still be better at winning games than this entry did at explaining why one of their players’ production will decrease.

Increase in production: Brandon Johns Jr.

Somewhere in the vicinity of a year ago, this article predicted Brandon John Jr to be the breakout player for the Wolverines in 2020-21. John Jr went on to start six fewer games, average around seven fewer minutes and his scoring average dropped from six points per game to slightly under five in comparison to the previous season.

After being so wrong, the obvious thing to do is double-down on Johns Jr again and state that his production will notably increase this season. With only freshman Moussa Diabate vying for minutes at power forward, the 6’8 senior should continue the success he had when he stepped in for the injured Livers in the final five games the Wolverines played. In those five games, he averaged over nine points and four rebounds in 26.4 minutes per game.

It looks as if Coach Howard will only give eight players any kind of regular minutes, Johns’ minutes will trend upward to around thirty per game, while his points will surpass double-digits.