NCAA Basketball: Reevaluating preseason top 25 power rankings of 2022-23 season

22. Michigan (18-16, NIT)

Bringing back Hunter Dickinson was the best news Michigan could receive in the offseason, especially because they lost four very good players from last year’s Sweet Sixteen team. Still, Juwan Howard got a really talented new freshman in his son Jett and did what he could build a talented backcourt around Dickinson, but this is another team that had a miserable experience and underachieved.

Michigan had a decent start to their season, including a blowout win against Pittsburgh, but a theme of their season was falling short against top-level competition. They lost games to Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Indiana (twice), Illinois, and Purdue all by five points or less. Additionally, they dropped a major headscratcher against Central Michigan right before New Year’s. Failing to win some of those games really hurt the Wolverines’ resume, and they settled for an NIT appearance after finishing the regular season just 17-15, flaming out early in the Big Ten Tournament.

Those young backcourt pieces in Kobe Bufkin and Jett Howard did some good work this season, but the lack of experience likely hurt the Wolverines, who couldn’t pull out those close games down the stretch. It was another underwhelming season in Ann Arbor, and Michigan couldn’t even redeem it like last season with another Tournament run. There will certainly be questions about Howard’s ability to lead this program, but this roster should still be in decent shape if everyone comes back next year; replacing Dickinson’s role in this lineup would be nearly impossible.