Michigan Basketball Notes Around The Web

[ILikeJakeButtICannotLie]

A couple of Athletic Michigan Basketball related content.

First, preseason All American team. Since it's $$, I only include the stuff about Michigan.

Hunter Dickinson, 2nd Team All America

Hunter Dickinson, sophomore center, Michigan

Hunter Dickinson is a blessing to college basketball fans everywhere. Why? His willingness to troll Illinois, and come right out with his disdain for the Illini fan base, has already made Jan. 14’s Illinois-Michigan game in Champaign one of — if not the — marquee events on the college basketball calendar. College hoops needs people who aren’t afraid of their Twitter replies. Dickinson, to his immense credit, is leading the way.

It helps that he’s an extremely good player. Yet another in this list’s raft of “true” big men, Dickinson (like Timme, Cockburn and Jackson-Davis) was also told by the NBA he needed to develop an outside shot, play face up, and be better in ball screen coverages. That’s all well and good; it behooves Dickinson to listen. But like his cohort on this list, there will be a short-term value to not losing what made him great as a freshman last season — an unstoppable array of low-post moves, left-handed touch around the rim, rebounding solidity that made him the cornerstone of a four-loss Michigan team’s impressive success.

Sam Vecenie updated 2022 Mock Draft

13. Chicago Bulls​

Caleb Houstan | 6-8 wing | 18 years old | Michigan​

I’m very interested in what Houstan has the potential to be. Similarly to Baldwin above, he’s a big wing at 6-foot-8 with some length. He has a good looking jumper, but there isn’t quite enough consistency yet to feel completely confident every time he steps in to shoot. He attacks closeouts well off an advantage and makes good passing decisions. As he showed at the U19 tournament this summer, he comes off screens well, particularly knowing how to come off pindowns either off a curl or a flare out to the 3-point line. His body control is real. On top of that, he’s a good defender who takes that end of the court seriously. He’s also on the younger side for the class with a 2003 birthday, so Houstan will absolutely be someone NBA teams want to get eyes on early.

No other UM players.