Although Michigan’s decision to hire Juwan Howard as its head coach was predominantly met with praise, expectations for the Wolverines’ 2019-20 season tumbled as former head coach John Beilein, former assistant Luke Yaklich, sophomore Jordan Poole, freshman Ignas Brazdeikis and former four-star commit Jalen Wilson all announced they would not be in Ann Arbor.
Prior to this upheaval, T-Rank projected that Michigan would be the best team in the country, and ESPN’s Joe Lunardi gave Michigan a one seed in his initial 2020 NCAA Tournament bracket.
Afterwards, T-Rank projected Michigan to be ninth in the Big Ten and 39th in the nation, and it was not outlandish to believe that the Wolverines may find themselves on the tournament bubble.
As a result, this author wrote that Michigan’s expectations should be tempered for this season and that it may take time for Howard to have the program humming at a level where Beilein had it.
However, after the first five weeks of the season, the restrictor plate has been taken off of Michigan’s expectations, and if U-M closes this week strong, few teams will have a better resume.
