Michigan Basketball - Depth
The 2011-12 Wolverines went 24-10 and 13-5 in the tough Big Ten Conference despite using their bench for only 16.7 percent of the available minutes, per KenPom.com. How low is that compared to the rest of the nation? Consider this: only Youngstown State used its bench less (15.4 percent).
It's amazing our starters stayed as healthy as they did last year. As much as you hate to take your starters off the floor, it should help reduce the risk of injury.
Just over a month until the first game vs Slippery Rock (November 9th), can't wait!
October 8th, 2012 at 10:12 AM ^
October 8th, 2012 at 10:14 AM ^
I think a big part of that has been the massive dropoff from starters to the bench though. He has talked about the freshmen getting some serious playing time this year if they can show certain things, such as defense, etc. I aniticipate now that he has some capable bench players that aren't that big of a dropoff, we will see a lot more bench play.
October 8th, 2012 at 10:28 AM ^
Burke, Hardaway, McGary, Robinson, Morgan, Horford, Stauskas, Vogrich.
That's probably your 8 right there with a situational smattering of McLimans, Bielfeldt, Albrecht, and Akunne.
My only roster concerns:
(1) PG to spell Burke
(2) On-the-ball defense
I love having front court depth, though. Lots of options playing the bigs in different configurations.
October 8th, 2012 at 10:40 AM ^
This is spot on.
And just want to reiterate that we have to find a secondary ball handler. Burke handles the ball so much by position...and he's so good on offense that he has the ball even more. We've got to be able to ge the ball up the floor in other ways. We also are going to need someone to come off the bench and get us into our offense.
Albrecht could be one of our MVPs in a weird way.
Hardaway and Robinson are going to have to be able to bring the ball up as well. Someone is going to come out and trap/press Burke to get it out of his hands and force others to create the offense.
October 8th, 2012 at 6:38 PM ^
October 8th, 2012 at 10:42 AM ^
October 8th, 2012 at 10:51 AM ^
If he isn't a liability on the defensive side, I could see Stauskas playing PG ten minutes a game.
October 8th, 2012 at 11:40 AM ^
No need. Akunne and Albrecht will give Trey a break when needed. Stauskas is a 2, and when you have two seemingly competent backups at the point, there's no need to force him to play a position that isn't natural for him.
October 8th, 2012 at 11:29 AM ^
I think a couple of those other guys are going to see more than just spot duty during mop-up time. Bielfeldt and McLimans in particular will see non-garbage time minutes.
October 8th, 2012 at 2:17 PM ^
IMO, the only way McLimans plays is foul trouble or injuries. Unless he's really improved this season. I see Mclimans as the 4th man in a 3 man rotation: McGary, Horford, Morgan. McLimans may see more than mop up duty some games, but for the most part I don't see him being in the regular rotation.
Bielfeldt: We've never seen him play, so that will be interesting in itself, to see how willing he is to bang (Coach B says Bielfeldt's a real good rebounder), pick, and pop, then if he can hit the 12 footer that has alluded Jordan Morgan to this point.
October 8th, 2012 at 1:34 PM ^
October 8th, 2012 at 11:15 AM ^
I'm not sure if that's accurate or not, but regardless we'll still be able to get a lot more minutes from the bench, even if it's only 3 people.
October 8th, 2012 at 10:12 AM ^
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.
October 8th, 2012 at 10:22 AM ^
I’ll go out on a limb by predicting you will see the bench more than 16% vs Slippery Rock..
October 8th, 2012 at 10:25 AM ^
Way to go out on a limb on that one.
October 8th, 2012 at 10:28 AM ^
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.
October 8th, 2012 at 10:43 AM ^
October 8th, 2012 at 10:54 AM ^
My hope is that the void in leadership is taken up by Morgan. He has been a scrappy, under-recruited big player for Michigan the past two seasons. Beyond his game continuing to elevate with the help of Bacari, I think Jordan has the opportunity to be the spiritual leader of the team. There were several times last year when he was on the bench getting on guys while they were running back upcourt after a turnover. Between his maturity, energy and improved play, my bet is on Morgan being a leader on the court and the leader in the huddle.
October 8th, 2012 at 1:43 PM ^
October 8th, 2012 at 2:20 PM ^
First off, that was an awful attempt at spelling his last name. He had the best 3 pt shooting % on the team last year. He had the 2nd highest RPG and 4th highest PPG. I do agree with you that his defense wasn't anything special.
Conclusion - You don't know what you're talking about.
October 8th, 2012 at 2:53 PM ^
He didn't miss that badly. Sadly, this will likely be my last time to use this:
Shoot More On The Run You Crazy Zombie.
October 8th, 2012 at 10:38 AM ^
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).
October 8th, 2012 at 10:58 AM ^
Might as well play the five freshman in the exhibition games.
October 8th, 2012 at 11:22 AM ^
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.
October 8th, 2012 at 2:22 PM ^
Bielfeldt's redshirt was injury driven as well (knee).
October 8th, 2012 at 11:40 AM ^
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)
October 8th, 2012 at 12:11 PM ^
Great job posting a link to an ESPN Insider article that is a pay wall.
October 8th, 2012 at 1:34 PM ^
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.
October 8th, 2012 at 2:27 PM ^
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.
October 8th, 2012 at 4:40 PM ^
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