Analysis: What Mike Smith's Addition Means For Michigan Basketball
After losing a pair of underclassmen to the transfer portal this week - David DeJulius and Colin Castleton - Michigan received good news April 10 when Columbia grad-transfer point guard Mike Smith announced he would play for the Wolverines in 2020-21.
Starting 90 games in four seasons at Columbia, Smith has always been a scorer and a distributor, averaging better than 13.0 points per game in each of his four seasons (18.0 career average, including 22.8 last year) while he averaged 4.3 assists per game during his Columbia stint.
Smith is eligible for a fifth year because he played in just seven games in 2018-19 before a torn meniscus ended his junior season short.
Though not an efficient three-point shooter, making 33.9% of his attempts last year (worse than Zavier Simpson's 36.0%), Smith could provide Michigan a greater scoring threat at the point guard position than Simpson offered in 2019-20. This past season, Smith took 91 more three-point shots, 162 more twos, and got to the free-throw line 46 more times than Simpson.
If he can make the transition to a higher-brand of basketball - in three games last year against Power 5 and Big East opponents, Smith averaged 19.7 points (shooting 48.9% from the floor) with 15 assists and nine turnovers - the 5-11, 180-pound point guard could compete to start for the Maize and Blue, allowing for rising senior Eli Brooks and incoming freshman Zeb Jackson to share minutes at the '1' and the '2'.
Playing most of his minutes at the '2' this year, Brooks tripled his point production, from 2.5 per game as a sophomore to 10.6 as a junior, while shooting a career-best 41.0% overall and 36.4% from beyond the arc.
Jackson, meanwhile, is a raw prospect at the point and must learn more of the nuances of the position. U-M also doesn't have a strong recent history of relying on rookie ball handlers: of the seven point guards Michigan has signed over the last decade, only three averaged better than 20.0 minutes per game (only one, Trey Burke, averaged better than 30.0 MPG) while only Burke averaged better than 10.0 points per contest as a freshman (14.8).
Until Smith committed, Brooks looked like Michigan's best bet to run the point with Jackson his No. 2. Brooks still might be the guy, with Smith his backup, but if Smith can seize the starting job, it creates maximum flexibility for a pair of guard positions that could gain the addition of five-star Josh Christopher next week and also brings back junior Adrien Nunez and sophomore Cole Bajema.
A position that was beginning to look like a question mark for the Wolverines in 2020-21 is likely now a strength for the Maize and Blue, and buys Juwan Howard time to seek an addition in the 2021 recruiting class.
