Top 10 Reasons Why Michigan Basketball Will Win 20

The optimistic viewpoint (bare with me)...

#10 Zach Gibson- He emerges as a legitimate starting center in the Big 10 Conference (again an optimistic view).

#9 Weakness of the Big 10- Indiana is horrible. Northwestern, Penn State and Iowa should not be much better. Ohio State, Minnesota and Illinois are young.  Outside of Purdue, Michigan State and Wisconsin, the conference is way down (as usual).

#8 Kelvin Grady will NOT play beneath the basket in the 1-3-1 zone (we can only hope).

#7 Ben Cronin, Stu Douglass and Zack Novak-  None of these three redshirt and play significant minutes.  Cronin will provide much needed depth in the front court and Douglass and Novak become the 3rd and 4th options offensively.

#6 Free tickets, new baskets and shot clock at Crisler- The atmosphere at Crisler improves greatly.  Michigan sells out at least 3 other games besides Duke.

#5 Easier Schedule- While Duke remains and UConn was added, Michigan avoids Harvard this year.

#4 Improved three-point shooting- Despite the three point arc moving back, Michigan will shoot over 40 percent from beyond the perimeter this year.

#3 Laval Lucas-Perry- If only he could play in games before January. Everything I have read on Perry is that he will be a stud.  The transfer point guard from Arizona takes over the starting reigns halfway through January.

#2 Manny Harris & DeShawn Sims- Harris fails to have a sophomore slump and exceeds the hype of being a preseason 1st team all-big 10 player. Sims not only shoots three-pointers this year.  Not many others teams in the Big 10 will have a 1-2 combination as dynamic as Michigan.

#1 John Beilein- Michigan fully grasps the Beilein system in year 2.  The Wolverines cause close to 20 turnovers a game. After 2 wins in the Big 10 tournament, Michigan is a surprising bubble team selected for the NCAA Tournament.