Michigan Basketball: Predictions for Wolverines' 2014-15 Team Awards

With Michigan's basketball season right around the corner, the anticipation of another successful season has to have Wolverines fans giddy. After all, the Michigan football program isn't exactly inspiring any confidence these days.

And when it comes to predictions, a lot can happen over the course of the year to determine how the season will be defined. Regardless, we'll give it a crack.

The Wolverines return some quality talent as well as a good recruiting class—ranked the 28th-best class in 2014, according to 247Sports—to work with. No doubt, head coach John Beilein will have his team ready to compete.

What follows in this slideshow are a few predictions on who will be the Wolverines' best player (MVP), best newcomer and more. So with the season a little more than a month away (with the first game against Bucknell on November 17), let's hand out some imaginary preseason hardware.

Simply put, Caris LeVert has to take this team and put it on his shoulders.

After averaging a respectable 12.9 points and 4.3 rebounds (both of which are tops among returning players) last year, the assumption here is LeVert is ready to expand his game and take it to the next level. With many people predicting All-Big Ten and perhaps All-American status, LeVert is the easy call for MVP here.

Expect LeVert to be a 15-20-point scorer while also taking on more of a leadership role this year. LeVert has all of the abilities and intangibles to break out into super stardom this season.

With his ability to come off the bench and dial it up from deep (a career .442 percent shooter from three-point range), Spike Albrecht should see an increase of playing time this year, especially on a relatively inexperienced Wolverines team.

Considering the firepower lost (Nik Stauskas, Glenn Robinson III, etc.) from last year, expect to see Albrecht get close to 20 minutes off the bench, while providing said spark from deep. As one of the most experienced players on the team, Albrecht will be leaned on like he hasn't been before.

Even though he may initially come off the bench, expect Beilein to rely on Albrecht in the clutch and use him in a variety of three-guard sets. He'll make the most of his minutes and be the biggest asset off the bench.

The selection of Mark Donnal here may come as a bit of a surprise considering the hype attached to Kameron Chatman's name. However, the play of Donnal will be much more important to Michigan than that of Chatman and the other freshmen.

Seeing as he practiced last year as a redshirt, Donnal should be the one freshman most prepared for the rigors of a long season. And with production in the post crucial to this year's success, Donnal will play a key role in Michigan's fate this season.

He did well on Michigan's trip to Italy over the summer, where he averaged 10.2 points and 6.5 rebounds per game while also shooting a phenomenal 69.5 percent from the floor. If he can come close to sporting those numbers this year, he'll be on his way toward a very successful rookie campaign.

With more maturity and a more important role on this club, expect Donnal to edge out Chatman for this honor.

The one player on the Wolverines whom fans are hoping for bigger and better things from has to be 6'6” sophomore guard/forward Zak Irvin.

After averaging 6.7 points last year in his freshman campaign, Irvin is expected to take a big leap in scoring production this year, as he will be counted on to be the Wolverines' secondary scorer to LeVert. With Irvin coming off of a productive trip to Italy—where he averaged 20.8 points and 7.8 rebounds while shooting a sizzling 68.8 percent from the field and nailing down 12 of his 16 of three-point field goals—the sky looks like the limit for him this year.

Michigan lost the likes of the aforementioned Stauskas and Robinson III, so Irvin will be counted on to take on more of a load this year. And based on the Italy trip, he should be up for the task. So, look for Irvin to easily be the Wolverines' most improved player.

LeVert is not only a gifted scorer, but he is also a dynamo on defense.

With great length to work with, LeVert is a fantastic one-on-one defender. He is also very active in the passing lanes and can be a disruptive force all over the court. He is coming off of a season in which he averaged 1.2 steals per game; expect those numbers to improve with all of the firepower lost from last season.

As the most grizzled vet on the team, expect LeVert to be a force on both ends of the floor, and he could conceivably challenge for Defensive Player of the Year in the Big Ten as well.

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