Michigan crossed the halfway mark of 2015-16 Thursday at Purdue in a game that unfortunately encapsulated much of the season thus far: a shorthanded Wolverine squad turned in a strong offensive performance (accounting for context here) that fell short of covering for their defensive shortcomings against a quality opponent.

While it hasn't been a bad year—Michigan is 12-4; they were 10-6 at this point last season with two awful losses—it hasn't been the bounce-back many expected. The Wolverines have beaten the teams they should beat, but they've yet to take down a top-50 KenPom opponent in four tries, and that'll have to change if they want to make a tourney run.

So what's gone well, what hasn't, and what will swing this season one way or the other?

WHAT'S LIL WAYNE 2005-09

All photos: Patrick Barron/MGoBlog

Caris LeVert. Aside from a woeful performance at SMU, LeVert has been one of the best and most consistent players in the country. He boasts the third-best offensive rating among players who use at least 24% of their team's possessions, per KenPom. His drives are more productive than ever before; instead of snaking his way towards the basket, LeVert is getting there more directly, finishing at the highest rate of his career (77.4% at the rim, per hoop-math), and posting the assist-to-turnover rate of a good point guard—which he functions as for this team, something equally evident in his absence as his presence.

When healthy, LeVert has looked like the potential All-American we hoped he'd become, a triple-double threat any time he steps on the court. Unfortunately, the "when healthy" caveat is now required; I'll cover that in another section.

Duncan Robinson. This is Robinson's definitely-not-altered shot chart from Shot Analytics:

One could leave it at that and conclude Robinson has exceeded expectations. In the beginning of the season, there wouldn't have been much more to say anyway; through the first four games he attempted 16 three-pointers and four two-pointers while failing to tally an assist. Robinson has at least one assist in ten of the 12 games since that point, however, and he's used the threat of his outside shot to generate opportunities for himself and others closer to the tin.

Robinson is quietly improving defensively, too, though he set the bar quite low to start the year. His lethal efficiency on offense more than makes up for that; it's hard to complain about a player who's first nationally in ORtg, eFG%, and True Shooting %.

Muhammad-Ali Abdur Rahkman. The bright spot in an otherwise dreadful game at Purdue, Rahk was the only Wolverine who could get to the hoop and finish in LeVert's absence. In the two games since LeVert's injury, Rahk is 11/15 on two-pointers, 4/8 on threes, 5/6 from the line, and he hasn't recorded a turnover. While it'd be great to see Rahk pass the, um, rock a little more—only Aubrey Dawkins has a lower assist rate among non-centers—his ability to generate buckets on his own is huge coming off the bench, and as his outside shots develops (11/29 this season) he could carve out a huge role for himself.

Three-point shooting. Michigan is shooting 43% from beyond the arc as a team. Four high-volume shooters—Robinson, LeVert, Dawkins, and Derrick Walton—are making 45% or better. It boggles the mind to consider where the team's numbers would be if Zak Irvin (15/59) had been shooting like he did as an underclassman.

[Hit THE JUMP for the bad and the we're-not-sure-yet.]

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Photos L to R: Campredon/Barron/Fuller

The bigs. Everyone expected center to be the weakest spot in the lineup, but the degree to which it's hampered Michigan on both ends of the floor may be the story of the year thus far. Until the Purdue game, M had been overwhelmed on the boards in each of their losses, and the Boilermakers' size gave the bigs plenty of trouble anyway—AJ Hammons and Isaac Haas went a combined 10/15 from the floor.

Mark Donnal's two-game run against Illinois and Penn State provided some hope, but until someone establishes themselves as a consistent pick-and-roll threat, the offense won't reach its potential. The only guy out of the four centers who looks like much of a rim protector is DJ Wilson, who still plays the game like a wing in a big's body. Ricky Doyle can't hang onto the ball. Moe Wagner isn't ready yet.

Until this group gets it going (if they do, of course), Michigan will be even more of a live-by-the-three, die-by-the-three team than ever, which is saying something with John Beilein at the helm.

Derrick Walton. This may be an overreaction to Walton's ugly start to conference play, but an ugly start it is: in three B1G games he's made 3/15 two-pointers with five assists against ten turnovers while playing some terrible perimeter defense. It was fine for Walton to take a back seat in the offense earlier in the season when LeVert was healthy and creating much of the offense; it's troublesome how little Walton has been able to assert himself when LeVert isn't on the court.

Most worrisome is Walton making a team-low 50% of his shots at the rim. Michigan needs him to be able to score off the dribble, and while it was easy to dismiss his poor finishing last season as a byproduct of injury, that excuse doesn't apply anymore. While Walton's been a superlative spot-up shooter and consistently productive defensive rebounder, he hasn't been much more than that. We keep expecting the patented LaVall Jordan Point Guard Breakout; thus far for Walton, that hasn't happened.

Kam Chatman. There's not much to say here except Chatman can't get significant minutes for a team that could use a player with his size and skill-set, and that's a bad sign for a heralded prospect in year two.

Injuries. This passage from the season preview turned out to be unfortunately prescient:

It's quite easy, therefore, to project an immediate and full recovery. LeVert and Walton should be better than ever, Zak Irvin rounded out his game in their absence, the large sophomore class should take a big step forward, and the addition of Duncan Robinson could turn the offense into a juggernaut.

But it isn't that easy. The center position is still a major question mark. There are several players in line for possible breakout seasons—Doyle, Dawkins, Chatman, Wilson, even Irvin—but none are guarantees. Irvin and Spike Albrecht are battling injuries that shouldn't affect them during the meat of the season, but with back and hip issues, respectively, there's good reason for trepidation. The fact of the matter remains that this group still hasn't a chance to play with each other at full strength.

Irvin's all-around game picked up from where he left it at the end of last season, but whether due to physical or mental repercussions (or both) from his back procedure, he looked uncomfortable shooting the ball until the last couple weeks, and that's reflected in the stats. Albrecht, of course, had to end his year—and quite possibly his career—early because of the pain in his hips. Now LeVert is dealing with a murky ankle or foot issue that's kept him out of the last two games and will likely prevent him from suiting up tomorrow night agaisnt Maryland. Injuries haven't hit the squad as hard as they did in 2014-15, but they've still played a significant role.

WHAT'S LIL WAYNE'S BRIEF MOMENTS OF LUCIDITY

Bryan Fuller/MGoBlog

Zak Irvin. Irvin is so close to being really dang good. He's getting to the rim, creating for teammates, pulling down boards, holding his own defensively against bigger players—just about everything we saw from him to end last season. The issue, of course, is he hadn't been able to hit a jumper until Christmas, and even since he floundered as the primary offensive option against Purdue. If his shot is really back, that last game should be more of an anomaly than anything else; if it isn't, he could be exposed in conference play as opponents force the offense to run through him. Even including center play, there's no bigger X-factor for Michigan as the season goes along.

Aubrey Dawkins. The numbers look great. Dawkins is making 62% of his twos and 46% of his threes on a team that doesn't need him to be more than a finisher and three-point gunner on offense. So what's the problem? Beilein handed Dawkins' starting job to Robinson because Dawkins couldn't play better defense than a D-III transfer, and at that point there's little benefit to having Dawkins in the game instead of Robinson.

Dawkins still needs to figure it out on that end or his minutes will vary depending on the matchup. While he's a great bench scorer to have in the rotation, the recent emergence of MAAR—who's scoring well and playing better defense—could eat into his playing time even though they don't play the exact same spot; Beilein has the lineup flexibilty to make it work with whoever gives the team a better chance to win, and right now that's Rahk.