And after 2013-14 we lost 2 first round picks, 1 second round pick, and J-Mo and did far worse in the big ten. The point is, who knows. It’s all moving part and we have no answers right now
Sorry, but LeVert last year was good to very good at best, but never great, never dominant and never elite. Anyone who cares to dispute that is welcome. And he's coming off a serious and recurring injury, his recovery from which is far from certain. His NBA stock was dropping, not rising. He may have an all-conference caliber season in him, but that's far from certain. Same with Irvin...good to very good last year, but not elite. By comparison, look at someone like Kaminsky last year. There was zero doubt that he would be one of the top two or three players in the league and a POY candidate. That's what having elite returning talent looks like. Michigan has nobody coming back who made ANY level of all-conference. That's the first thing you judge a team's prospects by...who they have coming back that did really well the year before. Then you look at the freshmen who are likely to have an immediate impact as starters, and possible improvement of players who were just OK to good, taking into account that every team has the potential for all of their returning players to show some degree of improvement, and that if that's the main thing you are counting on, it's not a clear advantage.Bottom line…Michigan has a lot of potential, but a lot of catching up to do. We will almost certainly improve, but teams like Maryland, Indiana, Wisconsin and MSU aren’t going to stand still. We have to improve far MORE than all of those teams in order to exceed what most people are currently forecasting for us in the Big Ten.
No one is saying Caris is as good as Kaminsky. His stock dropped because he wasn’t playing. When he went down with an injury, he was still projected lottery. And I have never seen anyone claim Irvin is elite, ever. All I’ve see people say is his game is a bit more diverse now (which it is). As for not returning anyone that has made any level of all-conference, you seem to be forgetting that in Caris’ sophomore year, he made 2nd team all-b1g, for both coaches and media.
And yes, in most cases you judge a team by what they have coming back from the previous season. But when your two best players were hurt for it, I think it’s more than ok to look at what they did the season previous.
And your boldness on Wisconsin and reservations for Michigan is a complete contradiction. Wisconsin returns less firepower than Michigan does and returns a guy that made all conference 3rd team…
I count Walton Irvin and LeVert as capable scores and potential all B1G players. The key word there is potential.
They return Spike MAAR and Dawkins who showed they can play last year and deserve to be here.
Chatman and Doyle are returners with potential to breakout.
So there may be no “elite” players depending on how you think of Levert (I think he is a top 10 player in CBB) but even if he is not elite, it should not matter due to the depth and some experience.