As we expected/reported, respectively, Isaiah Livers will be moving on to the NBA draft, and Eli Brooks will be returning to Michigan next year. Zay’s message was laconic:

thank you michigan

— Isaiah (@isaiah__02) April 15, 2021

While the even more understated Brooks let the school announce it:

SPECIAL ROSTER NEWS

Simply put ...
A CAPTAIN IS BACK!

Taking advantage of the NCAA's one-time rule in response COVID-19, Eli Brooks met with Coach Howard & accepted the additional year to return for the 2021-22 season!#GoBlue 〽️#ForCompetitorsOnly pic.twitter.com/GMDLq9wquL

— Michigan Men's Basketball (@umichbball) April 14, 2021

Brooks returning goes a long way to settling the biggest question on Michigan’s team next year, giving a very young backcourt a super-senior who specializes in getting others organized. Brooks’s impact on the court last year was as visual as our podcast, but it was certainly measurable (using Faulds to excise backup time):

Note some extreme three-point luck on defense.

Or you might have watched the Minnesota game and 90% of the MSU game he missed last year and come to the same conclusion. As Ace wrote last week, Brooks gives Michigan positional versatility at the 1 and 2 spots, and was a major factor in Michigan’s defensive ability to dissuade good shots and run complicated rotations. He’s also a solid 40% shooter, excellent at the line, and underrated distributor. His presence should give Juwan Howard the flexibility to bring along the freshmen at their own pace. Barring a surprise from the transfer portal, Brooks should see his minutes at the point increase while they ease Frankie Collins into the role. Michigan would of course love for Collins, Kobe Bufkin, Isaiah Barnes or Zeb Jackson to really pop next year. Odds of one of those guys being a major contributor are pretty high; two would have been an ask.

As for Livers, we already got our extra year when he decided to forego the NBA to captain the 2020-‘21 team. It remains one of the greater tragedies in Michigan history that his final team had to play their postseason without him. Their best outside shooter, best free throw shooter, most switchable defender, and team leader, the nights Livers was on Michigan was absolutely unbeatable, and he was on a LOT. Most games we would end up talking about another guy, or some halftime adjustment, and then come back to Livers canning four threes in the second frame while shutting down the other team’s best wing. Ho hum. May his NBA team have a similar sensation of how boringly good this guy is, minus the moments when he comes down gingerly from a thunderdunk attempt and you have to contemplate life without him.

Michigan is about as prepared for that as one can be. Brandon Johns used Livers’s final absence to emerge as the no-doubt starting four of the future, showing the same kind of size/athleticism combo that made Livers so frustrating to play against on defense. While Johns doesn’t have anything like Livers’s quick trigger outside the arc, he can certainly shoot, and brings a lot more as a foul magnet and dunker in the lane. Additions Moussa Diabate and Caleb Houston, plus sophomore Terrance Williams, seem more than capable of fulfilling the roles relinquished by departures at the wings.

Speaking of departures, Michigan’s roster seems mostly set at this point, as they await official word on Franz Wagner, who’s expected to be a lottery pick, and Hunter Dickinson, who’s expected to return. Brooks is the only super senior who chose to take the free COVID year.

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