Juwan Howard says ‘multiple guys’ will play point guard this season

The point guard spot has been locked up for a long time at Michigan. Zavier Simpson was the starter at the one for the past three seasons. Before him came Derrick Walton, and before him was Trey Burke. The string of strong point guards at Michigan has been very strong for nearly decade.

Now a huge question mark is running through Ann Arbor as to who the field general will be next season after Simpson graduated. Big Ten Network asked Juwan Howard in an interview last week what the plans were for the position going forward.

“What we have coming in, coming back for next season, I trust the guys that are going to play at that position,” Howard said. “We’re going to use multiple guys at that position.”

Four players make the most sense to takeover the starting role. An obvious choice is Eli Brooks, who has been mostly a combo-guard in his first three seasons at Michigan, but could make the switch to point guard. Franz Wagner emerging as one of the best players on the team last season more than likely solidified his spot as a starter. He fits more as a two or three, but if Livers comes back he is more than likely the three, which either bumps Brooks from the starting lineup or to point guard. He ran the offense in different formations last season in the few moments where Simpson or David DeJulius weren’t on the court.

The next natural selection is grad transfer point guard Mike Smith, who transferred to Michigan from Columbia this past offseason. With an impressive offensive output last season scoring 22.8 points and 4.5 assists per game last season.

Zeb Jackson, an incoming freshman this season, could be a dark horse candidate to try and snag the spot. As a four-star recruit and a top 100 player in the 2020 class, it is not completely out of the question to think he could make a run at the starting role.

Another transfer the Wolverines brought in this offseason was Nojel Eastern from Purdue. He played a decent amount of minutes at Purdue last season, averaging 25.5 minutes per game. The issue with Eastern is he cannot stretch the floor. He has shot a whopping 0 percent from behind the arc for the last two seasons combined. In fact, he has only attempted four shots from three in his career at Purdue. An eligibility waiver also stands in the way of Eastern earning first-team reps at point guard.

Michigan basketball a 6-seed in way-too-early Bracketology

ESPN unveiled their way-too-early bracket rankings for the 2020-21 season and Michigan is right around where they were projected to be this past season.

The Wolverines earn the 6-seed in the West region in these projections. In this hypothetical scenario, they would play the 11-seed play-in game of Syracuse or Seton Hall.

Other Big Ten teams to make the cut are Wisconsin and Michigan State as 2-seeds, Iowa as a 3-seed, Ohio State as a 4-seed, Indiana and Rutgers both pass as 6-seeds, Purdue as an 8-seed and Illinois as a 9-seed. All-in-all, eight Big Ten teams find their way in.

Michigan offers 4-star quarterback in 2022 class

Jim Harbaugh has offered a plethora of quarterbacks in the 2022 class, 12 to be exact now after the Wolverines offered 2022 4-star Holden Geriner.

Geriner has also earned offers from Arkansas, Auburn, Florida State, Tennessee, LSU, Georgia and more.

National Brews:

• The NBA is expected to ratify a plan to return to play in late-July with 22 teams in Orlando.
• The Pirates announced Chris Archer will not return to the mound until 2021 (if they are even playing by then...) after having surgery to help with symptoms thoracic outlet syndrome.