austin davis

Michigan's backup center won't be taking a sixth year here, per a Rivals article that doesn't have a good pull quote to that effect. Davis doesn't know what's next, but it should definitely be transferring to a Horizon League school and shooting 80% on giant usage en route to league POY.

At Michigan, Davis's playing time was likely to be curtailed. He averaged about 10 MPG in the games he was available for, racking up buckets underneath and also being, uh, present on defense:

That's actually an improvement from the last time I checked, when Davis had a whopping 13-point 2P% D deficit. Even if Moussa Diabate is going to be much less likely to put a post defender in a blender, he's going to be at least in Dickinson's ballpark as a defender, and that'll be enough to relegate Davis to the deep bench.

That said, Davis was a fun guy to have around. When John Beilein took him the universal reaction was "…why?" and he still managed to shape himself into a solid bench player in his upperclass years. There was a satisfaction in seeing Davis get in the post against literally anyone and get up a good shot. Dude hit 70% from the floor over his 150-some shots as a junior and senior, which is an incredible conversion rate given Davis's Bill-Laimbeer-but-maimed lift. I will particularly remember back-to-back possessions against Luka Garza in which he D-ed up the national POY and then put him in a post torture chamber on the other end.

Austin Davis putting a Chinese food menu’s worth of post moves on Luka Garza is not something I saw coming in this Iowa/Michigan game.

— Walker Carey (@walkerRcarey) February 26, 2021

Godspeed.

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On Monday I took a look at the potential returners and departures from this year's roster as well as possible offseason additions. One longshot came off the board yesterday when five-star 2021 center Charles Bediako committed to Alabama. [ALMOST IMMEDIATE UPDATE: Mike Smith announced on his Instagram that he's not coming back and will enter the NBA Draft. A full post is coming shortly.]

Most everything else is still on the table. Sam Webb even added a scenario I'd dismissed as unlikely in a quick note:

I still expect Michigan to be active in the portal, but I expect the focus lead guard help to be the focus. And that’s even if they get Eli Brooks or Mike Smith back (I haven’t received word on either yet).

I've seen a couple insider-y message board posts (which I now cannot locate, I apologize) that suggested Minnesota's All-Big Ten point guard Marcus Carr isn't going to be a Michigan target. There are still a lot of intriguing lead guard options out there. Your guess is as good as mine regarding possible transfer additions at the moment, though that process can move fast, as we saw last year with Mike Smith. (It took a little longer to get Chaundee Brown on board.)

Now that we have a handle on the many ways the roster can take shape, it's time examine the potential lineup combinations and how they project to fare.  Let's get this over with: any realistic roster projection for next season doesn't include Isaiah Livers or Franz Wagner, or at least that's how we're going to protect ourselves from disappointment.

To avoid confusion, I'm referring to the five players who've already played their senior year but have the option to return without counting against the scholarship limit as "super seniors," while Brandon Johns and Adrien Nunez are the two regular seniors.

Two Super Seniors, No Grad Transfer

Point? [Campredon]

It's sounding more and more realistic to expect at least one senior to utilize the extra year of eligibility. 247 hoops insider Dotman has dropped hints that both Eli Brooks and Chaundee Brown could be back for another season. The Wolverine's staff is also mentioning that possibility. Let's start with that scenario: every other super senior leaves, as does Wagner, and Juwan Howard decides not to hit the transfer market.

Here's one way that roster's depth chart could look, keeping in mind that most of the roster is capable of playing multiple positions, including the entire starting lineup outside of Hunter Dickinson:

[Hit THE JUMP for this group's outlook and several more lineup combos.]

I'm drained and disappointed. I imagine anyone reading this is, too.

In a slow, ugly game, Michigan missed chance after chance to push past UCLA and into the Final Four. After trailing for most of the second half, the Wolverines twice took the lead, the final time on a Hunter Dickinson free throw with 4:30 to play. They'd stay within a possession for the rest of the game.

They wouldn't make another shot from the field, missing their last eight and getting only a pair of Franz Wagner free throws. Wagner had the cleanest look at a potential game-winner only to airball a wide-open three-pointer following a Michigan timeout with 19.8 seconds left. Eli Brooks tried to put back the miss on the fly with a reverse layup and left it short.

UCLA's Johnny Juzang split a pair of bonus free throws with six seconds left to give Michigan another crack. Smith pulled up and had the space for a good look from beyond the arc but missed the mark. Yet the Wolverines still clung to life when UCLA knocked the ensuing rebound out of bounds with what the officials determined was 0.5 seconds remaining, enough time to catch and fire. Wagner's desperation three at the buzzer never came close.

Michigan is a better team than UCLA, even without Isaiah Livers. Juzang had to be spectacular, pouring in a game-high 28 points—more than a quarter of the game's total—on 11-for-19 field goals with a high degree of difficulty. Michigan got no such performance out of their main players. Hunter Dickinson led the team with only 11 points, and while he made 5/10 shots from the field, he went 1/4 from the free throw line and committed four turnovers. Wagner shot 1/10 in arguably his worst game of the year; the only other candidate is the ugly loss to Illinois. Smith finished 1/7 and didn't record a second-half assist.

UCLA's secondary scoring paled in comparison to that of Michigan, which got quality contributions out of Brandon Johns, Chaundee Brown, and Austin Davis. Juzang's game-long heater and the immense struggles of his opponents' headliners negated that advantage. It's a game of making shots; UCLA's top bucket-getter played at his best while M's sat on the bench in a walking boot. It can be a cruel game.

Johnny Juzang, walking bucket [Jamie Schwaberow/NCAA Photos via Getty Images]

In the light of day, it'll be time to celebrate the accomplishments of a team that was picked to finish seventh in the Big Ten before the season, won the conference, earned a one seed, and came within one shot (or several one shots) of a Final Four in Juwan Howard's first NCAA Tournament as a head coach. This season was an unequivocal success.

Tonight, it's tough to get over the missed shots against a beatable opponent. I was prepared to see Michigan not have enough firepower to keep up with Gonzaga; seeing that come to pass against a UCLA team that had two players score more than four points is more difficult to accept in the immediate aftermath, even if that's the nature of a game that's already produced a wild tournament.

The excitement of a top-ranked incoming recruiting class will be of considerable comfort, too. Howard is just beginning his head coaching career. The program is in as good a place as its ever been. If any program knows there are only so many clean shots at Final Fours and national championships, though, it's Michigan, and it's sad to see this team come so close to adding more banners only for a terrible shooting night to do them in.

[Hit THE JUMP for the box score.]