Michigan Basketball Officially Begins Tonight

The John Beilein era of Michigan basketball got underway last week with an exhibition game against Ferris State, but tonight is the official start to the season. Michigan hosts Radford at home, in what hopefully will be Beilein's first regular season win as the Wolverines' head coach. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. on the Big Ten Network.

As we all look ahead to the season and what may come of it, I will say the same thing that Beilein told me in an e-mail after first getting the job: be patient. This young team has a long way to go as they are still learning Beilein's system of play and have to gain experience. With all of that inexperience, we probably will be looking at a rough season. Regardless, I am just hopeful that we will see this team learn and get better as the season goes on. Since Michigan now has a coach that focuses on coaching so much, I am confident that these players will get better as time goes on.

With all of the inexperience on this team, a typical schedule would normally be filled with cupcakes on a regular basis to allow the players to get better against lesser competition. If Beilein would've been hired a few months before he was, then Michigan probably would've done that. Since he came after the season ended and final plans for schedules were already in the process of being made, Michigan's young team will be facing one of the tougher schedules a U-M basketball team has seen in a while. With games against Georgetown, Duke, Boston College, and UCLA in the non-conference portion of the schedule alone, we could be looking at quite a few disappointing games in the sense that they will likely be losses. Throw in a trip out to Alaska during Thanksgiving for a tournament and it'll be another source for early-season troubles.

Looking at the conference part of the schedule, Michigan will have another tough time getting wins in my opinion. Now that they conference schedule is up to 18 games instead of the usual 16, U-M will face an extra pair of opponents. That may be a good thing in one respect since MSU is only the schedule once, but it is in East Lansing.

Regardless of what happens during the 07-08 season, I, as already stated above, am just hopeful that this team learns from their mistakes and gets better as time goes on. I wouldn't expect a run at the NCAA tournament as I see Michigan's record ending up just below .500, but think of this as the stepping stone to build momentum going into the 08-09 season.

To get ready for tonight's game and the season in general, take a look at an article of 40 things different with U-M basketball this season and also watch the video below from the Big Ten Network to hear John Beilein and Jerret Smith talk about the upcoming season.

UPDATE: Michigan won 82-55. DeShawn Sims led all scorers with 23 points.