The 2017–18 Michigan Wolverines men's basketball team represented the University of Michigan during the 2017–18 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Wolverines, led by head coach John Beilein in his 11th year, played their home games for the 51st consecutive year at the Crisler Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan. This season marked the program's 102nd season and its 101st consecutive year as a member of the Big Ten Conference.
The entering class included 2017 Michigan Gatorade Player of the Year and Mr. Basketball of Michigan Isaiah Livers. Kentucky transfer Charles Matthews became eligible to play this season after sitting out the 2016–17 NCAA Division I men's basketball season, while graduate transfer Jaaron Simmons became eligible to play immediately. The departing class included graduating seniors Zak Irvin and Derrick Walton who had completed their eligibility, and graduating seniors Mark Donnal and Andrew Dakich. In addition, D. J. Wilson declared for the 2017 NBA draft with two years of eligibility remaining. Jeff Meyer and Billy Donlon also departed prior to the season to take assistant coaching positions at Butler and Northwestern, respectively, and were replaced by DeAndre Haynes and Luke Yaklich.
During the regular season, the team finished tied for fourth in the Big Ten Conference. They earned a 5th seed in the 2018 Big Ten Conference men's basketball tournament, where they won the championship, thus defending the title won by the 2016–17 Wolverines in the 2017 Big Ten Conference men's basketball tournament the year before. The Wolverines finished the season with a 33–8 record, setting a program record for wins during a season. The team earned the third seed in the 2018 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament and reached the Championship Game before losing to Villanova.
Departures Zak Irvin and Derrick Walton graduated during their senior seasons for the 2016–17 Michigan Wolverines men's basketball team. Mark Donnal and Andrew Dakich graduated with one year of eligibility remaining, which they could use under the graduate transfer rule to play elsewhere. Donnal committed to play with the Clemson Tigers. Dakich committed to play with the Quinnipiac Bobcats, but could not gain acceptance into his preferred graduate program. Dakich announced in July that he had committed to play with the Ohio State Buckeyes. On June 20, Michigan assistant coach and former Butler Bulldogs assistant coach Jeff Meyer left the program to join former Michigan assistant coach LaVall Jordan's staff at Butler. On June 26, Chicagoan and assistant coach Billy Donlon left the program to become an assistant under long-time friend Chris Collins at Northwestern. On October 11, Fred Wright-Jones left the team, but remained at Michigan as a student on a full academic scholarship.
Preseason In April 2017, some early pollsters included Michigan among the expected preseason top 25 teams: ESPN (#22), and Sports Illustrated (#23). However, most early polls omitted the team: Yahoo!, USA Today, NBC Sports, CBS Sports, Sporting News and Bleacher Report. At the time, ESPN's Eamonn Brennan felt it was a "foregone conclusion" that D. J. Wilson would declare for the 2017 NBA draft, with Sports Illustrated projecting him as a first round selection. On April 10, both D. J. Wilson and Moe Wagner declared for the 2017 NBA draft, but did not hire agents, which gave them until May 24 to withdraw their names and retain their athletic eligibility to return to Michigan. On April 25, Ohio grad transfer Jaaron Simmons announced that if he did not remain entered in the 2017 NBA draft, he would transfer to Michigan. Simmons, a 2017 first team All-Mid-American Conference honoree who averaged 15.9 points and 6.5 assists in 2016–17, had declared for the draft without hiring an agent on March 28. On April 30, Jeff Goodman of ESPN reported that Wagner and Wilson were invited to the NBA draft combine and Walton was named as an alternate. On May 23, the addition of Simmons as a graduate transfer was made official as Simmons removed himself from the NBA draft process. On May 24, Wagner withdrew his name from the NBA draft and Wilson did not. Following the deadline for returning to college and its announcements, Michigan was not ranked by some media outlets, including ESPN, CBS Sports, NBC Sports, USA Today, Fox Sports, and Yahoo! Sports,
In the fall preseason, Wagner was selected to the 10-man preseason All-Big Ten team. He was also one of two Big Ten players named to the 21-man Karl Malone Award watchlist. He was a preseason John R. Wooden Award and Naismith College Player of the Year watchlist honoree.
2017–18 recruits and personnel On October 23, 2015, four-star recruit Jordan Poole became the first commitment for the Class of 2017 after home gym visit from Beilein and assistant coach Jordan and multiple Michigan campus visits. Poole had several competing offers including Illinois, Indiana, Nebraska, Memphis, Marquette, and Auburn. As a junior, Poole was a 2016 WBCA All-State Boys Basketball first team selection. On June 20, 2016, reports confirmed that Michigan had recruited Kentucky transfer Charles Matthews, who played his freshman season for the 2015–16 Kentucky Wildcats. Matthews would have to sit out the 2016–17 season. Michigan confirmed the story on July 1. The same day, Poole announced that he would transfer from Rufus King High School in Wisconsin to La Lumiere School in Indiana where he would experience a campus lifestyle, play a schedule with several ESPN broadcasts, and be teamed up with unsigned class of 2017 prospects Brian Bowen and Jeremiah Tilmon. On July 19, Spring Grove Area High School point guard Eli Brooks committed to Michigan over offers such as defending national champion Villanova, Ohio State, N.C. State, Temple and Kansas State. On August 7, 2016 Isaiah Livers committed to Michigan over contenders Michigan State, Butler, Minnesota, California and Boston College. On July 15, 2017, it was announced that Naji Ozeir would join the Michigan basketball team as a preferred walk-on. Ozeir, who had an offer withstanding from Wayne State to play on scholarship, had previously played for the Lebanese under-17 national basketball team in the 2015 Arab National Cup. Luke Wilson was added to the roster as a preferred walk-on on September 1, 2017. On the morning of the season-opening exhibition game, the team announced that student manager C. J. Baird would be elevated to the roster. In December, the team added Rico Ozuna-Harrison, who had been practicing with the team since walk-on tryouts in October, to the roster. Ozuna-Harrison had been a captain for the 2017 Cass Tech team that won the school's first Detroit Public School League title since 1998.
Livers was named 2017 Michigan Gatorade Player of the Year and Mr. Basketball of Michigan. He is Michigan's 11th Mr. Basketball of Michigan, but the first since Manny Harris in 2007. Poole was a member of the 2017 Dick's National High School Champion La Lumiere team.
On August 4, 2017, Michigan announced that it had hired Luke Yaklich and DeAndre Haynes away from the Illinois State Redbirds to serve as assistant coaches. At the same time, the team promoted Chris Hunter from director of player personnel to director of basketball operations.
Future recruits 2018–19 On December 22, 2016, junior recruit David DeJulius became the first commitment for the Class of 2018 after receiving a December 17 offer following his career-high 46-point, 7-rebound, 5-assist performance of December 17 in leading East English Village Preparatory Academy over Dakota High School. Brandon Johns became the second commitment for the Class of 2018 when he committed to Michigan on June 29, 2017, over several other schools including hometown Michigan State, along with fellow Big Ten universities Indiana, Iowa, and Purdue. At the time of his commitment, Johns was considered by several recruiting sites, such as 24/7Sports as well as ESPN, as the top recruit from Michigan in the Class of 2018.
In mid-June 2017, junior recruit Taylor Currie committed to Michigan, becoming, at the time, their first commitment for the Class of 2019. Two weeks later, Currie announced that he would be reclassifying and would be set to join the Class of 2018 marking the third member of the class. On September 22, 2017, Ignas Brazdeikis became the fourth; at that time he was ranked in the top 50 in the 24/7Sports composite top 100 rankings for recruits of the class of 2018. Brazdeikis committed to Michigan over schools such as Vanderbilt and Florida. On September 29, 2017, Currie decommitted from Michigan, dropping the number of 2018 recruits to three. On October 2, 2017, Adrien Nunez became the fourth member of the 2018 recruiting class. Nunez received much attention over the summer scouting period and drew praise for his shooting ability; he committed to Michigan over schools such as Penn State, Texas A&M, and Boston College. In October, Michigan added its fifth recruit to the 2018 recruiting class with the addition of Colin Castleton, who selected Michigan over Illinois. Castleton noted his connection with new Michigan assistant coach Luke Yaklich as a driving force behind communication with Michigan.
Johns and DeJulius finished second (2,792 points) and third (2,542), respectively, to Michigan State recruit Foster Loyer (3,691) in the 2018 Mr. Basketball of Michigan voting. All five finalists were Big Ten conference recruits (Michigan-2, Michigan State-2, Purdue-1). Brazdeikis repeated as the Ontario Scholastic Basketball Association MVP in 2018 after earning the award in 2017.
Regular season
November Michigan began the season with a victory over North Florida. Although the game was tied with 11:03 remaining, Michigan won 86–66. Michigan was led by Duncan Robinson with a game-high 21 points, while Charles Matthews posted 20 points in his Michigan debut, marking the first time Michigan had two 20-point scorers since March 3, 2015. On November 13, Michigan defeated Central Michigan 72–65. Michigan had five double-digit scorers, including Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman who led the team with 17 points and Moe Wagner who contributed his second consecutive double-double, and third of his career. With seven lead changes in the game, Michigan took the lead for good with 8:47 remaining. On November 16, Jon Teske, who had previous career highs of four points and three rebounds, led Michigan with a 10-point, 11-rebound double-double as Michigan overcame its third second-half deficit in three games against Southern Miss.