Members of the Michigan basketball team demonstrate drills during the team's media day Tuesday night at Crisler Arena.

Lon Horwedel | AnnArbor.com

Basketball season begins in just more than 24 hours with Michigan Madness starting at 8 p.m. at Crisler Arena.

And while who wins the slam dunk contest that night isn't a big question for this Michigan team -- I'll take Darius Morris in a semi-upset for the record -- there are still questions about the Wolverines. And make sure to pop on by Friday night as we'll be updating as live as we can be from the festivities.

On to the questions:

1) Where will Michigan's point guard come from?

Not totally sure if John Beilein knows the answer to that question yet, although it wouldn't be shocking to see Laval Lucas-Perry get the first crack at it. The Arizona transfer spent part of the summer at the Point Guard College learning more about the position from Dena Evans and her crew. But don't be surprised if Morris ends up starting at some point this season. People around the program rave about his ability and he's the most natural point guard on the roster. Plus, he seems to have confidence in his defense, which is critical out of the point position.

2) What about the forwards and center? Does Michigan have the depth to hang in the physical Big Ten?

Beilein addressed this at media day saying Michigan is looking at a lot of options. DeShawn Sims is an obvious answer there, but he'll need help for the Wolverines to do damage in the Big Ten this year. Zack Gibson is a good place to start and Beilein is hoping to get something out of Ben Cronin, Blake McLimas and Anthony Wright. The gut here is that if Cronin is healthy, he might start to show flashes of what 7-footers who can shoot can do in Beilein's offense.

3) How much will Manny Harris improve?

Based off of what people have said, he's gotten a lot better. Harris himself said he's working on his consistency and Paul Pierce seems to really like his game. Harris made a good call in not even testing the NBA waters last year. For this I go back to when I covered Notre Dame and Luke Harangody. Harangody didn't declare after his sophomore year and then put himself in a position where he could declare after his junior year with nothing to lose if he wanted to come back for his senior year. The rule changes this year, giving players less time to make a decision on returning to school, but it still was a good move. Harris is in the same category and he told me last week that he is in no rush to leave MIchigan. That said, another year like last year and it could end up being a difficult decision for him.

4) How much better will the Big Ten be this year?

The Big Ten should be the deepest conference in the country. It won't be as deep as the Big East was last year, where it had two teams that were in the Top 10 at points during the season not make the NCAA tournament but the league certainly has a bunch of talent. Michigan State and Purdue are the class of the league but Illinois, Minnesota, Penn State, Ohio State and Michigan (not necessarily in that order) should be good enough teams to make the NCAAs. Wisconsin is right there, too. That's eight out of 11. 

Indiana should be improved and Tom Crean is an extremely talented coach. Northwestern has shown to be capable. The only team that looks like it might not compete very well is Iowa, which has struggled over the past few years. But look at the coaches in the league. Other than the Big East, which has Rick Pitino, Jay Wright, Jamie Dixon, John Thompson III and the Jims (Calhoun and Boeheim) at the top of it, no league has a better group of coaches. Good coaches usually means extremely good basketball and with Tom Izzo, Crean, Beilein, Thad Matta, Tubby Smith, Bo Ryan and Matt Painter, that's an awfully impressive group. Remember, Matta was the guy who essentially helped destroy Notre Dame's season last year by writing the blueprint on how to guard the Irish in December.

5) How many regular season wins will MIchigan get this year, and will the Wolverines make the NCAAs?

With how good the Big Ten is, this record probably won't be on the nose, but I'll give it a guess. I think Michigan is going to start off hot. They could very easily win the Old Spice Classic provided the Wolverines get by Creighton. Marquette should be one of the worst teams in the Big East this year after losing Wesley Matthews, Dominic James and Jerel McNeal. Xavier lost its coach, Sean Miller, and Michigan should be more talented. From the other side of the bracket, Florida State or maybe Alabama should emerge. 

The Seminoles would give Beilein's crew the toughest game. Going to Utah won't be easy, but it wouldn't stun me if MIchigan was unbeaten heading into No. 1 Kansas. The Big Ten will be an extremely tough league to get through, and throwing a game against Connecticut in the middle of it doesn't help. For the regular season -- and remember, this is just a guess -- 21-9 seems like a good number with an 11-7 record in the Big Ten (league losses at Penn State, at Wisconsin, at Purdue, at Minnesota, both home and away against Michigan State and at Ohio State). The lone non-league losses: at Kansas and at home against Connecticut. That'll be good enough for a mid-range NCAA tournament seed.

Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein.