2. Offseason missteps too much to overcome with the current roster
I mentioned before what happened this past offseason with Michigan Basketball but I truly feel that the time it took to deal with the Caleb Love and Olivier Nkamhoua recruitments really bound this roster when it came to building out depth. They added three transfers and two freshmen, along with getting Jaelin Llewellyn back from a season-ending injury a year ago.
The problem is that most of the new moves haven’t worked out. Nkamhoua (17.1 ppg and 7.6 rpg) and Nimari Burnett (10.4 ppg) have been fine, while former Seton Hall big man Tray Jackson (5.5 ppg) is one of two main rotation players off the bench. With four starters playing over 32 mpg, the team needs all of them to play well to have a chance.
Llewellyn hasn’t provided much since being cleared to play from his injury, while freshman guard George Washington III gets spot-up minutes at best. The two international forwards Youssef Khayat and Lee Aaliya (who isn’t even with the team) haven’t worked out at all. The fact that Will Tschetter and Terrance Williams have become solid contributors and that’s still not enough is a big worry overall.
Losing star big man Hunter Dickinson and two 1st round NBA Draft picks from a roster was always going to be tough to overcome. But the team didn’t do enough to replace them. Offseasons are hard enough to navigate without extra things to deal with or be delayed with in the transfer portal era but Michigan, through some and no fault of its own, had too much to overcome.