{"id":48158,"date":"2024-04-18T16:38:43","date_gmt":"2024-04-18T21:38:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/?p=48158"},"modified":"2024-04-18T16:38:43","modified_gmt":"2024-04-18T21:38:43","slug":"the-3-2-1-michigan-football-basketball-best-bets-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/the-3-2-1-michigan-football-basketball-best-bets-more\/","title":{"rendered":"The 3-2-1: Michigan football, basketball best bets, more"},"content":{"rendered":"

There aren\u2019t many certainties in college athletics these days, especially with the\u00a0un<\/em>certainty the transfer portal, etc., can create for Michigan and everyone else. It\u2019s now a year-by-year endeavor just to field a competitive team, not knowing who\u2019s coming or going.\u00a0<\/p>\n

RELATED:<\/strong> INSIDE THE FORT, Part I: Michigan basketball recruiting \u2013 the latest<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

But we have learned a lot about the Michigan football team this spring, and about the basketball program under Dusty May<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s leadership. Here are three aspects of football and basketball we\u2019re very confident about heading into the summer, two concerns, and one prediction in this week\u2019s 3-2-1 column.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Three bold April Michigan football and basketball thoughts<\/strong><\/h2>\n

3. Dusty May was the perfect guy for the Michigan basketball job.<\/strong>\u00a0And honestly, it doesn\u2019t feel that bold saying it. Now, we\u2019ll see how he does with the Xs and Os, but you don\u2019t get to a Final Four at Florida Atlantic if you\u2019re poor in that area. May is such a basketball junkie that he\u2019s always learning and willing to listen to others to address his shortcomings. As one who worked with him in the past said, \u201che\u2019d almost run back to his desk after a bathroom break to get back to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

May has bought into not getting into bidding wars for top players, and it\u2019s probably going to cost him a shot at Johnell Davi<\/a><\/strong>s (who might command close to 7 figures if some of the analysts are correct). He\u2019s interested in culture and finding guys who want to be here for more than just the money, and it appears to be working. At the same time, he\u2019s kept his promise about embracing NIL and doing his part to spend \u201c25 to 35 percent of his time\u201d on that aspect.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He has a plan, and he\u2019s following it. We don\u2019t know how he\u2019ll do here (though every day it seems more and more likely he\u2019ll succeed), but we can say it certainly appears Michigan got the right guy to replace Juwan Howard.<\/p>\n

2. The Michigan football defense won\u2019t put up similar numbers to last year<\/strong>\u00a0\u2026 but that\u2019s only because the offense won\u2019t be quite as good, meaning they\u2019ll be on the field a bit longer. Complementary football is a huge reason the Wolverines were able to win a national title (though the \u201cair it out\u201d crowd and five remaining members of the Rich Rodriguez \u201cpoint-a-minute (vs. poor teams), defense optional\u201d crowd won\u2019t like to hear it).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Head coach Jim Harbaugh<\/a><\/strong> proved you can still win with great defense and an offense that wears teams down in the fourth quarter, getting back to his roots after the failed Josh Gattis experiment. Head coach Sherrone Moore wants to do it the same way, and he\u2019s got the defense for it \u2014\u00a0can he find an offense to complement it?<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll find out. But we do expect this defense to be nasty enough to keep the Wolverines in every game. It could even carry the day in several Iowa style, if necessary (though we don\u2019t expect the offense to be nearly that bad).<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0Michigan football will fall short of its needs in the 2024 portal \u2026<\/strong> which probably means they won\u2019t be winning a Big Ten title. It\u2019s getting harder and harder to compete without paying crazy money \u2014\u00a0a great quarterback, for example, isn\u2019t coming here without a huge guarantee. At that point, we expect the coaches to say they\u2019re comfortable with what they\u2019ve got in the room, and they\u2019ll be \u201call-in\u201d with Alex Orji<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n

Orji is a great athlete, of course, and if they get great line play and open holes for the backs, it can work. But we\u2019ve been spoiled the last few years by J.J. McCarthy, and it\u2019s going to be hard to take a step back from that \u2026 especially since this is a title-contending team with great quarterback play. <\/p>\n

Two thoughts on the basketball and football rosters in 2024-25<\/strong><\/h2>\n

2. The Michigan basketball roster is taking shape, and it\u2019s going to be competitive.<\/strong>\u00a0Michigan \u201cleads\u201d for several prospects we know of between the portal and the prep ranks, including FAU 7-footer Vlad Goldin, Auburn guard Tre Donaldson<\/a><\/strong> (visiting today), Chatsworth (Cali.) Sierra Canyon 2024 Justin Pippen<\/a><\/strong>, and they\u2019re strong with several others.<\/p>\n

May has cast a wide net, and there\u2019s no desperation here. He can be picky, and he\u2019s only going to pursue kids he knows he can get into school. He\u2019s not going to make excuses \u2014\u00a0he\u2019s simply going to outwork everyone to field a competitive team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an unbelievably positive vibe in the building right now, per our sources, and great culture emerging from the top down.\u00a0<\/p>\n

1. The second starting Michigan football corner (to Will Johnson) isn\u2019t currently on the roster.<\/strong>\u00a0Yes, we believe Michigan will find someone similar to Josh Wallace<\/a><\/strong>, if not better (and make no mistake \u2014\u00a0Wallace was really, really good last year), while the young guys like DJ Waller Jr<\/a><\/strong>. and Jyaire Hill<\/a><\/strong> continue to emerge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The coaches understand they have many of the pieces in place to make a run at a repeat. As we\u2019ve noted, corner, linebacker, receiver, and possibly quarterback are those portal additions that could turn a potential contender into a Big Ten favorite again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some U-M coaches have started following outstanding Arizona corner Tacario Davis<\/a><\/strong>, for example. While that might not mean anything, it\u2019s fun to think about, and seems to indicate they\u2019re serious about adding to the roster with some outstanding players.<\/p>\n

One Michigan football prediction\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Michigan will go through a few different offensive line iterations before settling on one by Big Ten season<\/strong>. This isn\u2019t uncommon, and it doesn\u2019t spell doom for the men up front \u2014 it just means it sometimes takes game action to come up with the best combinations. Guys need to prove themselves in games, and that\u2019s when you find out who works best together, etc.<\/p>\n

But this isn\u2019t like 13 years ago when they had 5 guys and pretty much nobody else. There\u2019s talent here \u2026 it\u2019s just a matter of finding the right combination.<\/p>\n

The post The 3-2-1: Michigan football, basketball best bets, more<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There aren\u2019t many certainties in college athletics these days, especially with the\u00a0uncertainty the transfer portal,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48158"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48192,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48158\/revisions\/48192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}