What we learned from Michigan’s exhibition games

Michigan wrapped up its preseason slate with a 96-94 overtime win at St. John’s on Saturday night. The Wolverines were back to a full roster and played much better than they did in their exhibition opener against Cincinnati the previous week.

Despite the progress, the product on the court looked October quality, not anywhere close to March (or even November) ready. The Wolverines have struggled with turnovers and defense in the preseason and will make good use of their final week of preseason practice.

“We have a lot to clean up,” May reiterated on Monday morning.

The games don’t count, and there’s work to be done, but with 85 minutes of preseason basketball in the books, there’s something to assess. Here’s what we learned about Michigan from the preseason action.

There’s a rotation developing

Michigan was shorthanded and mixed and matched lineups in the exhibition opener, but was back to full strength on Saturday night against St. John’s. The result was a nine-man rotation that felt very similar to what we’ll see when the year tips off in November.

The Wolverines started Elliot Cadeau, Roddy Gayle, Nimari Burnett, Yaxel Lendeborg, and Aday Mara.