Let's tip this off with a timely query:

Hi Ace,

Juwan clearly is in the "shoot your shot" mindset when it comes to recruiting. Do you think that will be frustrating for Michigan fans who during the Beilein era accepted they weren't even in the running for five stars? Thanks!

CDB

— Hoover Street Rag (@hooverstreet) April 28, 2020

To a certain extent, yes. While I expect Michigan will fare better with five-star prospects now that Juwan Howard isn't picking up recruiting a class in the middle of a cycle—five-star recruitments tend to be years-long processes—there'll always be the occasional cruel twist. Those will be frustrating to various degrees; the Josh Christopher pivot to ASU felt like more of a gut punch than Isaiah Todd's decision to take the G League route in part because the staff seemed to have planned for Christopher to be on the roster and start at a position of need.

The good news: Howard did a remarkable job to be so close with those recruitments in the first place, caught a bad break when the NBA opened up a new professional route when it otherwise appeared Todd's best option was college, and will be able to pitch immediate and ample playing time to elite 2021 guards. He also still managed to pull in the Big Ten's best 2020 recruiting class despite the late drama.

People are going to complain about recruiting no matter what. Beilein's on-court success didn't stop the recruiting complaints—some of them legitimate, even!—during his time at Michigan. As long as Howard is bringing in solid multi-year program guys like he did with Hunter Dickinson, Terrance Williams, and Zeb Jackson, he can afford to shoot for the stars, and I suspect we'll see more success with this approach down the road.

[Hit THE JUMP for the rest of the mailbag.]

Any insight into Juwan's recruiting philosophy? Are there any indications so far into his skillset preferences for each position?

— moonji moragetty (@mumurthigal) April 28, 2020

This could be a whole post unto itself, so I'll try to run it down quickly.

Guards. Compared to Beilein, Howard appears to want more size and athleticism out of his backcourt, even if that means sacrificing some shooting. There's more of an emphasis on finding downhill attackers. Overall, though, both coaches want high-level shot creators; they look to create those shots in slightly different ways, though pick-and-roll ballhandling is high on the list of requirements for both.

Wings. Howard is going more for NBA athleticism here than Beilein, who placed more emphasis on refined offensive skill. He's also looking at prospects who are more physically developed (five-star Todd excepted) than the players Beilein would bring in.

Bigs. There's a greater emphasis on rim protection. Howard will take someone who's athletically limited if they're, say, 7'2" and make it difficult to even see the basket. We may also see more versatility in the type of big men Howard puts out there; it's unfortunate that we don't get to see how he planned to utilize Todd.

Eli Brooks is going to have to play both guard spots again. [Campredon]

Do you expect to see Brooks at PG or SG this year?

— Andrew Magnotte (@magnaughty) April 28, 2020

While answering "both" feels like a cop-out, it's also the most likely scenario. Among true guards, Michigan has essentially swapped out Zavier Simpson and David DeJulius for Mike Smith and Zeb Jackson. In last year's three-man rotation, Eli Brooks played both spots.

Smith and DDJ are similar players in their ability to play both on and off the ball, though Smith has much more experience running the point and should do more of that than DDJ last year. Jackson is also capable of playing either spot, though his ability to contribute in year one may be limited.

That leaves a lot of minutes to fill at both guard spots. Brooks is going to be needed at both spots unless there's a major breakout from Cole Bajema or something we can't predict right now like a late transfer addition. He'll probably run the point more than he did last year because Smith's off-ball shooting far surpasses Simpson's but Smith may be the more dangerous pick-and-roll ballhandler.

Speaking of which...

skinny Duncan or JAS™ Caris [Campredon]

#mgomailbag Hey Ace... Which former Michigan player represents the comparable/ceiling for Cole Bajema?

— Timothy Breen (@tsbreen) April 28, 2020

Bajema is a shot at another Caris LeVert, with the caveat that LeVert, injuries aside, turned out about as well as you could imagine for a lanky, rail-thin three-star wing with developing offensive skill and a lack of elite athleticism. (LeVert may have made the NBA but even in college his drives to the basket relied on snaking past defenders, not blowing by them.)

I don't see Bajema having the shot creation ability of LeVert; he's more of a cross between LeVert and Duncan Robinson, where his primary threat is going to be as a spot-up shooter and he'll have to work hard to overcome his defensive limitations. I see his ceiling being somewhere around Robinson's—a program guy who develops into a dangerous offensive role player and keeps adding little pieces to his game as time goes on.

/cuts the brake lines [Campredon]

#mgomailbag assuming Livers comes back and there are no further additions to the team, what do you expect to be (a) game 1 starters (b) end of season starters (assuming all healthy) and (c) the reasonable best case scenario season outcome?

— Wil Jordan (@Tuba1060) April 27, 2020

Here goes nothing.

Game one starters: PG Mike Smith, SG Eli Brooks, SF Franz Wagner, PF Isaiah Livers, C Austin Davis
End of season starters: PG Mike Smith, SG Eli Brooks, SF Franz Wagner, PF Isaiah Livers, C Hunter Dickinson

Brandon Johns is a huge wild card. I could see him starting at power forward and pushing Livers/Wagner/Brooks down a position while moving Smith to the bench, which could be the ideal scenario for the team. The team's best five may instead have Johns at center if the Davis/Dickinson duo proves too limited. If Livers departs, it becomes a whole lot easier to project—Johns is the starting four at that point. Either way, he should play a lot even if he doesn't start.

I'd say the reasonable best-case scenario with this team is a Wagner-driven push into the top four of the Big Ten with something like a 12-8 conference record which the team parlays into a four- or five-seed in the NCAA tournament and a run to the second weekend.

@AceAnbender is he hadn't taken the Cavs job, would the G league Dev team have been the best spot for Beilein? #acepod #mgomailbag

— Ben (@JeepinBen) April 27, 2020

Beilein's best spot is at a college program that doesn't expect to compete for one-and-done talent. He's a coach who very much looks for a certain type of character in his players and I'm not sure he'd mesh well with a team of elite prospects—he'd do better as a developmental assistant in that program than the man in charge and I doubt that's something he'd want to do at this stage in his career.

https://t.co/RfrcpaAGrj Have you read this?? #mgomailbag

— Nicholas Martin (@nicholas____m) April 27, 2020

I have nothing to add. This is perfect.

I truly, truly, hate to admit it, but Michigan, under Jim Harbaugh, is still one of the premier programs in the country. I know, I know, I’m one of the worst offenders on the sub, but it’s just so much dang fun to make fun of Michigan. And man, the excuse that you’re losing to Ohio State every year because you’re the only team they get up to play sure is, uh, something to take pride in. But really, the Jim Harbaugh era has been defined by three things: (1) losing to Ohio State; (2) playing Michigan State and Penn State pretty even; and (3) taking out their frustration over (1) by stomping the everloving shit out of pretty much everyone else. Michigan, you’re Kicking Pigeons, by Spunge.

”Do you ever have that feeling that you want to punch the ceiling, so you stomp down on the floor, you can't take it anymore. In your search for absolution there is only one solution: kick a pigeon in the park.”

[kicks pigeon]