Michigan Basketball - Depth

It might change a little, but Beilein has a history of only going about 8 deep. He just generally doesn't go to the bench much.

Hopefully John B's recruiting the last two years will take care of that number this season. It would be nice to get Trey a rest as it seemed like he was playing all 40 every game toward the end of the season.

I’ll go out on a limb by predicting you will see the bench more than 16% vs Slippery Rock..

I'm excited about the freshmen, too, but I think people may be underestimating the loss of Novak and Douglass.  It didn't help when Smot left, either.  While there might be some senior leadership in practice, there aren't going to be too many on the floor when it counts this year.  

Freshmen are still unknown quantitles until they play against live competition.  Guys who fill it up in HS sometimes have trouble getting their shots off in college, or miss a lot for awile as they adjust to shooting faster.  

This could end up being a great team, but I don't think we're going to see much more depth.  I am guessing that the three who do come off of the bench are able to get on the floor more, though.  

Last year we really only had 7 guys in the regular rotation:  Burke, THJ, Novak, Stu, Morgan, Vogrich, and Smot.  There were a couple of guys here and there that got in but nothing significant (once Horford got hurt).  That's because (as many people already mention) there is a huge drop off to the next guy coming off the bench.  There was always a noticable drop off when guys like Eso Akunne and McLimans came in.

This year, we have so much more depth.  It's safe to say that at least three freshman will be in the regular rotation.  Adding them to Burke, THJ, Morgan, Vogrich, and Horford, we now have at least 8 guys who will play (barring injuries).  

Might as well play the five freshman in the exhibition games.

It's not that shocking that our starters stayed healthy.  Serious injuries aren't all that common in basketball.  We did lose Horford to a season-ending injury last year, so we weren't completely lucky.

This biggest concern about the lack of depth last year was the fact that Michigan's legs looked tired as soon as they hit the B1G tourney, and never really seemed to recover. They put everything they had into the season, and everything they had left into the B1G tourney and NCAA, but they just seemed tired. Shots weren't falling as well, got a bit lazier on the defensive end, and it came back to bite Michigan.

Michigan had a great year last year, but the real hope is that they can get some bench minutes, have about the same amount of success in the regular season this year, and be able to make a deeper run in the NCAA with fresher legs. I think that's the big advantage that depth gives Michigan and a big reason why Michigan should be better this year (not to mention, Michigan no longer has to depend on "cold" players to heat up, they have a much better chance of having a hot hand and being able to lean on that)

Because we have to use our starters almost all of the time, look at Burke, he got barely any rest during games last year because he scores.

I am hopeful Albrecht can spell Burke, i really think he can. Albrecht will never be all league material, but he should be able to handle the ball from day one. Michigan has more than enough scoring options. All Albrecht needs to do is protect the ball and distribute 5-10 minutes a game. Albrecht also has a real nice pull up J while driving hard to his right. That's not an easy shot to defend.

PG: Burke/Akunne

SG: Hardaway/Stauskas

SF: Robinson/Vogrich

PF: McGary/Biefieldt

C: Morgan/Horford

I expect Burke to play 30+ minutes with Stauaskas taking over the PG duties.

For the small lineup:

PG: Burke

SG: Stauskas

SF: Hardaway

PF: Robinson

C: McGary

That would be the best small lineup IMO because you get the best athletes and shooter on the floor and have McGary bang down low.  You can pretty much sub Morgan since he's probably their best screener to free up Burke