Livers might not come off the floor next year and I’d be surprised if we can slide him down a ton bc it means we really like Nunez or Bajema at the 3. I think Castleton and Teske are 2 of our 5 best dudes, would be nice if we could make that work.
who will step into three then? I don’t think that we can count on Livers at 4 before Nurez or Bajema prove themselves to be ready
Yeah, I guess it depends who is on the roster and if Michigan can add any bodies.
A Simpson, Brooks, Livers, Castleton, Teske lineup has… how many players out of their natural position? 3?
Roster just desperately needs someone at the 2 or 3 or both. Although looking at that situation, you definitely have to think Bajema has a good chance to earn minutes.
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If it were just Castleton at the 4 and we found a real secondary creator/shooter, you could see how it could work. Bajema and DDJ are gonna get every chance to make it work, that’s for sure.
You see Livers as a 4? I do too, but coverage in the past indicated he seems himself as a 3 and Beilein did too, IIRC. So I dunno. I still see him as a 4.
The four is certainly his natural position. He’s been striving to become a three, obviously will have to play a lot of minutes as a three this year, but he’s naturally a four given how limited he has been as a creator.
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AAAAHHHH…back to discussing hoops!!! This feels good! UM hoops games will be won and lost at the two and three this year, the most productive spots in college basketball. Give me Johns at the 4 scoring from the elbow, I think JH will open up the offense a bit! Our bigs will be solid, gotta have three balls!
Go blue!
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The 2 or 3; we keep returning to this pressing question. I imagine Juwan and co. have it at the top of the blackboard, too.
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But you don’t want to get Castleton 20 minutes BECAUSE it would mean he would play the four.
The most likely solution to the four next year, barring any commits, is that Livers is both the starting three AND the backup four.
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Absolutely, but if Juwan is comfy with 2 bigs out there and Castleton can handle 10-12 minutes at the 4 backing up Johns so that Livers can play exclusively at the 3 (leaving us less wing minutes to cover) it may
Even if Livers plays minutes exclusively at the 3, we still have about 50-55 minutes to cover from 1-3 and not a single player who’s ever posted a 95 ORTG or been a top 100 recruit on 247.
Castleton showed some game last year, and right now, irrespective of position, I’d have him in the Johns tier, ahead of all the perimeter guys save Livers and Simpson for likelihood to be an average Big 10 starting quality player next year.
We’re crazy thin right now. Unless Wilson or another guy likely to be able to start comes, we have 3 starters and then a bunch of question marks.
Whoever is our 4th best player next year seems likely to me to play big minutes, no matter who they are (save maybe Davis, which he won’t be anyways), whether that’s another smaller PG like DeJulius and we lose size at the 2, a 2nd big in Castleton as long as he and Teske can provide even mediocre spacing, or a spindly freshman in Bajema. If someone looks to have made a leap in pre-season, I’m guessing Howard will start them and then pick the 5th spot in reaction to that.
We may also not end up with that set a starting 5. Some teams play a bigger 4, some teams play a perimeter player who can put it on the floor and really attack closeouts.
I’m expecting Howard to be less dogmatic than Beilein, though obviously that’s just conjecture. It also wouldn’t surprise me if next year is about a makeshift attempt to win 20 games and get into the tourney by any means necessary rather than installing the way we’re going to play for the next 5-10 years. That might only come once Howard gets his recruits in or we actually have more than 7 non centers on the roster. Like if Howard wants to play fast, he might defer it for a year because we have no wing depth this year.
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