The Michigan basketball team will hold its first practice later today, signifying the start of the 2010-11 college basketball season.

While you won’t see much of the Wolverines until a Nov. 5 exhibition against Saginaw Valley State, here are the five biggest questions facing the team as they begin preparations for the season.

Zack Novak is Michigan's top returning scorer and one of the best options to make up for the loss of Manny Harris and Deshawn Sims.

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Manny Harris and DeShawn Sims are gone, and they took 54 percent of the Wolverines' scoring from a year ago with them. So are a chunk of the Wolverines’ role players, lost to graduation (Zack Gibson) or transfer (Anthony Wright to Toledo an Laval Lucas-Perry to Oakland).

Zack Novak is Michigan’s leading returning scorer, but he only averaged 7 points a game last year. There’s a chance Michigan could have a bunch of players averaging around the same amount -- many of John Beilein’s best teams had that trait -- but who fills the 29 points a game Harris and Sims scored is a big question.

The easy answer to the question is a combination of Novak, Stu Douglass and freshman Tim Hardaway Jr.

2) Who will be in the middle?

Michigan has three options - and none of them have played a college basketball game that counted. Redshirt freshmen Blake McLimans and Jordan Morgan, along with true freshman Jon Horford are the contenders for the role.

Look for McLimans to probably get the start and the first shot, but Beilein seems confident he’s going to use all three guys at some point.

Michigan freshman Tim Hardaway Jr. speaks with reporter during Wednesday's media day at Crisler Arena.

Melanie Maxwell I AnnArbor.com

Simply, the best player on Michigan’s team by the end of the year. He’s got freakish athletic skills, can shoot the three, has a smaller version of his father’s Killer Crossover and can slash the lane extremely well.

He’s going to play a lot this year and it wouldn’t be surprising if he led Michigan in scoring and rebounding, kind of like Harris did last year.

4) What’s the ceiling for this team?

This season? An NIT berth would be a good start, considering its preseason schedule (Syracuse, Kansas, Clemson and possibly Georgia Tech) and that the Big Ten has four legitimate Final Four contenders.

Michigan lucks out by playing Purdue and Illinois once each, but if the Wolverines can reach 16 or 17 wins, that’s a heck of a season. Considering there are no seniors, the ceiling for this team will be in 2011-12, when it should be a NCAA tournament contender.

5) Who is going to be the biggest surprise?

Matt Vogrich. He was always a good shooter, but didn’t get the minutes last year. He’s bigger now, stronger now and more confident than he’s been at any time at Michigan except last year’s season opener against Northern Michigan. Plus, he’s used to coming off the bench now, which was a marked change for him last year. He’ll likely do it again this year, but in a bigger role. If he is a consistent 6- to 8-points off-the-bench guy, that could make a major difference.

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 .