From the moment Mike Smith committed to Michigan as a graduate transfer last April, the move was surrounded by question marks.
At the time, they weren’t unwarranted. The Wolverines were in the market for a facilitating point guard following Zavier Simpson’s graduation, but Smith hardly seemed to fit the bill. He finished as the nation’s sixth-leading scorer during his final year at Columbia, averaging 22.8 points on 43% shooting.
But with the lack of talent around him on an Ivy League bottom-dweller, his unreasonably high usage rate and 19 shots per game stood out as caveats. So did his size, which checked in at 5-foot-11, 185 pounds.