Michigan Wolverines Basketball: Five Things We've Learned About Michigan Basketball In The Early Going

Michigan faces Toledo Wednesday after adding the Rockets in place of North Carolina State, which had to cancel due to COVID concerns. That will conclude the non-conference portion of the schedule.

If all goes well — and there are no guarantees given how COVID has already forced the cancellation of many games — the Big Ten figures to be as competitive as it’s ever been.

Here are five things we’ve learned about this U-M team in the early going, along with a few we won’t learn until Big Ten season.

5. Freshmen Hunter Dickinson and Terrance Williams are as advertised, and more.

These guys have been playing together since the fourth grade, and you can tell. They feed off each other, both have IQs that are off the charts and are the players all the analysts said they were.

Dickinson still has a lot to prove against better talent — he’s faced nothing like what he’ll see in the Big Ten — but he’s the most college-ready Michigan big man we’ve seen since Robert Traylor (1995) in terms of being ready for the level of competition both physically and mentally.

“He’s very polished. He just plays with the type of pace, has a calm about him where he’s never rattled, very smart, a high IQ player,” head coach Juwan Howard said. “He makes great decisions out of the post, passing it on time, on target. When he’s at the free throw line, he’s very patient, always looking and trying to make the right play at the right time, and he’s proving it.”

He’s also staying out of foul trouble — for now. Bigger tests are coming against guys like Iowa’s Luka Garza and Illinois’ Kofi Cockburn, but there’s a reason Dickinson is analyst Andy Katz’ No. 4 newcomer nationally.