UM last season vs UM upcoming

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Fortunately don’t play last years team— I’m not sure if we will ever have a 37-3 team actually capable of 40-0.

If you give guys a score of 0-15 impact based on time/effectiveness (kinda like expected plus/minus weighted toward season end).

2026 total 87: Cadeau 13, McK 10, Gayle 8, Burnett 8, Schetter 4, Mara 14, Lendenbourg 15, Johnson 14, others 1 (*not counting LJ since gone year end)

2027 total 84: Cadeau 14, McK 14, McC 11, Liburd 7, Costello 6, Thiam 14, Estrella 12, Goodman 5, others 1

So 2026 UM +87 and 2027 +84…
incoming maybe 3 point underdog right now?

Ironically 2026 UM avg score 87-69. 37-3! Maybe 86-71 this coming year? 32-6 record/Final 4?

How much do we improve with Europe kid or especially if LJ returns healthy? That gap could get VERY close. 34-5 or if both hit then 36-4ish… Repeating champs!

Wdyt?

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McK will make a leap for sure, but I have trouble believing he’ll be better this year than Cadeau was last year. (14 vs EC at 13 yast yr)

I think NK could give us some much-welcomed length, but so hard to know how well he’d stack up against B1G players his freshman year. I feel like he could be anywhere from 8-12 range.

My thoughts so far are that if we want any chance of playing up to the level of last year’s team, we’d have to have some guys producing at levels higher than currently expected. Which, I mean, that’s what happened last year! So who knows.

Fun thought experiment. Can’t wait to come back and see how prophetic I was laugh at how shockingly little I know about ball.

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Point guard? upcoming should be a bit better
Shooting guard? with all due respect to Nimari, upcoming will be better
Small forward? last season far better
Power forward? potential draw but JP will have to prove himself the equal of Rez
Center? Is the new guy a top 10 pick? if not, last season.

So the summary seems to be last season with a better front line, this season with a better guard duo.

Overall, the edge seems to clearly go to last season