John Beilein isn’t planning on changing the starting lineup, but this early in the season he isn’t opposed to making changes.

Especially with a young team, the fourth-year Michigan basketball coach said Wednesday he’s tinkering with rotations, seeing who plays well together and who might fit better in different situations.

In the season opener against USC Upstate, 11 players saw minutes that mattered - all 10 scholarship players and sophomore walk-on Eso Akunne, who was on a one-year scholarship last year.

Look for more of the same when Michigan faces Bowling Green on Thursday (7 p.m., Big Ten Network).

“We’ll be playing different rotations,” Beilein said. “It’s deep right now at 10 or 11 guys, so let’s just see who continues, we’ve had one game with the lights on.

“Let’s see how it is after five or six games.”

Traditionally, Beilein has settled into an eight-man rotation fairly early in the season and stuck with it, barring injury.

But with such a young team - six of the 10 scholarship players are freshmen or redshirt freshmen, including starting forwards Tim Hardaway Jr., Evan Smotrycz and Jordan Morgan - he is open to a larger net of players.

“We’re in a situation where we can get somebody better equipped to help us win that game in there, whether it is a defensive adjustment or offensive adjustment, sometimes that we need to do to help us win the game,” Beilein said. “Then the next day go ‘OK, we did that, let’s get better from that.’

“We’re going to go back to the same guys again, but hopefully it will build confidence in everybody and teach everybody we’re all doing this together, defensively, offensively, all got to play the game the best we can play, the way the game should be played.”

Excited about the guards In the early signing period, Beilein added two guards - Trey Burke and Carlton Brundidge.

While both are on the smaller side - both are about 6-foot-1, they also give something Beilein has felt his team has lacked - explosiveness.

“Really feel good about those two,” Beilein said. “Got to have quickness in the backcourt. Really need it because of the great defense we see all the time.

“These two guys will really help us out in the explosiveness we need there.”

Beilein indicated Michigan is still looking at 2011 players for the final scholarship but isn’t opposed to banking it to use on a 2012 player.

Blogging with purpose Michigan sophomore walk-on Josh Bartelstein might not play much, but he has been given another valuable role - he’s become the team’s resident story-teller.

Bartelstein has been blogging on Michigan’s official website since the start of the season, offering rare insight into his roommates - Stu Douglass and Zack Novak - along with telling funny stories about the rest of the team as well.

His latest entry described a team dinner with athletic director Dave Brandon -- one freshman Jon Horford almost missed.

This and that Michigan is fully healthy as sophomore guard Jordan Dumars has returned to practice. Dumars, though, is still sitting out his transfer year from South Florida and won’t be eligible until midway through the season. … Beilein and Bowling Green coach Louis Orr are familiar with each other from their Big East days. While Beilein was at West Virginia, Orr coached Seton Hall.

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