By most measures, the Michigan men’s basketball season opener was a success.

In Saturday’s 66-35 blowout victory over South Carolina Upstate, sophomore point guard Darius Morris played with the confidence of a proven floor general. Freshman Tim Hardaway Jr. tallied 19 points in an electrifying collegiate debut. And junior Zack Novak was Zack Novak — he hustled every second he was on the court.

But those positives, along with a lopsided final score, masked an otherwise glaring weakness for the Wolverines: center play. Even against a non-contender team, the big men were rather ineffective.

Redshirt freshman Jordan Morgan, who was labeled starting center prior to the team’s exhibition matchup against Saginaw Valley State, struggled to find a groove in the paint on Saturday. A week after registering nine points, 15 rebounds and a block in the exhibition, he scored just four points, collected six boards and turned the ball over twice on opening day.

Under the basket, South Carolina Upstate junior forward Chalmers Rogers, who’s about an inch shorter and 25 pounds lighter than Morgan, won inside position and boxed out the Detroit native all night, en route to nine rebounds.

“It’s a work in progress, and it’s a challenge,” Michigan coach John Beilein said after the game. “The fact is it’s always a challenge at this level. Having a very good five-man takes time and patience to really develop that position, and (Morgan, redshirt freshman Blake McLimans and freshman Jon Horford) are working hard.”

McLimans didn’t provide much offensive relief for Morgan in his 13 minutes off the bench. The 6-foot-10 center, who was recruited primarily for his shooting abilities, scored two points on free throws and didn't make a shot from the field. But McLimans did look comfortable on the other side of the ball, stifling a couple of Spartan drives to the hoop with big blocks.

“I felt great, and this was really a team win” McLimans said. “We played pretty good defense. And the blocks were great — it’s kind of what I did in high school. That first one got me into a groove again and really set the tempo on defense.”

And Horford, who will likely see less game time than the other two at center this season, finished the night with four points and four rebounds.

But the major concern for Michigan’s big men is play against quality opponents.

McLimans collected just two boards against USC Upstate (0-1), which doesn’t have a man taller than 6-foot-7 on its roster. And in less than two weeks, the Wolverines (1-0) will compete in the 2010 Legends Classic against No. 10 Syracuse, a team with some of the best frontcourt talent in the nation.

The Orangemen’s senior forward Rick Jackson has accumulated 20 rebounds in just two games so far, and 7-foot freshman center Fab Melo will be a force underneath unlike any Morgan, McLimans and Horford have practiced or played against.

Which of Michigan’s three centers will step up against Syracuse, if any, is hard to predict. None of the three will have more than three game’s worth of experience at the collegiate level when the team travels to Atlantic City, N.J. for the tournament next week.

For now, it looks as though Beilein will play the hot hand at center.

“We saw a little bit of a spike (in practice) this week, one day with Jon (Horford) and one day with Blake McLimans; that’s what we’re looking for,” Beilein said. “So that’s why they all played, that’s why we burned (Horford’s) redshirt. We just said, ‘We don’t know what we have, so let’s see what we have when the lights are on.’ ”