Michigan third most experienced team in the country

Key point here: “To measure experience, I use a handy item I call possession-minutes. Basically it’s the percentage of minutes that a player is on the floor, multiplied by the percentage of possessions he used last season”

“Last season was unrepresentative of what we’ve come to expect from John Beilein and the Wolverines, in large part because Caris LeVert and Derrick Walton Jr. missed a combined 29 games due to injuries. But if everyone stays healthy in 2015-16, a return to form is to be expected from UM. You know a Beilein team is firing on all cylinders when the 2-point accuracy exceeds, say, 53 percent (last season the Wolverines shot just 46 percent inside the arc in Big Ten play) and the turnover rate declines to near-Bo-Ryan-level invisibility.”

Though true on paper, this assertion is a little mis-leading. There’s a good chance both Irvin and Spike are going to be shells of themselves this year.

Remove them from the equation and I wonder where we stack up.

Though true on paper, this assertion is a little mis-leading. There's a good chance both Irvin and Spike are going to be shells of themselves this year.

Remove them from the equation and I wonder where we stack up.

Lol what? A full recovery is expected for both. Having to remove them from the equation is a pretty stupid thing to say.

Spike should be able to move better than or at least as well he did for much of last year. Zak is more of a question mark, but I doubt he’ll play if he’s only a shell of himself. We’ll see though.

I do think the numbers are probably a little inflated for other reasons. For instance, MAAR got a lot of minutes and experience last year, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him get a lot less minutes than, say, Duncan Robinson. Wagner and Wilson could eat into Donnal’s minutes.

But there’s little question the team will be a lot more experienced than last year, when our rotation by the end of the year included Spike, Zak, Max, and freshmen/walkons.

Though true on paper, this assertion is a little mis-leading. There's a good chance both Irvin and Spike are going to be shells of themselves this year.

Remove them from the equation and I wonder where we stack up.

Lol what? A full recovery is expected for both. Having to remove them from the equation is a pretty stupid thing to say.

Wishful thinking my friend.

The stat is somewhat misleading, but seems like jumping the gun to say that Zak and Spike will be ‘shells of themselves’.’

Spike could hardly walk after games last season, I’m going to guess he’ll be better off.

Zak we’ll just have to wait and see but Beilein seems confident.

Surprising but it speaks to the fact that the team is, at its core, a veteran squad – which means that us M fans can’t blame youth for any and all woes (for once)! It’s a shame that this experience doesn’t really translate into any credit or hype in the preseason rankings.

At least I fully expect a W against a very green OSU squad in Columbus!

This stat is really measuring how many minutes teams return from last year as opposed to how experienced they are

Spike hasn’t been cleared for workouts yet as he?

Spike hasn't been cleared for workouts yet as he?

Workouts yes (shooting, etc.), but not full go. That should be within the month.

This stat is really measuring how many minutes teams return from last year as opposed to how experienced they are

Correct, kind of a misleading stat. Doesn’t seem to weight how many minutes and years players have. I.e. a team that played only freshmen last year but returned the entire roster would grade at at 100%.