The University of Michigan men’s basketball team played their first exhibition game this past week, and they won it. On Sunday (10/11/2026), they beat Eastern Michigan 87-62 in Crisler Arena. Since this was just an exhibition game, Michigan’s record is still 0-0.
What Happened?
Michigan won the game handily, which was to be expected, but they took a while to pull away, which was a little concerning. It isn’t surprising that they still have some kinks to work out, since this was their first game. It’s obvious that they have tons of talent, and the big challenge for Coach Boynton is going to be figuring out who is hot at any given moment, and getting the right combinations of players out there for the given situations.
Game Flow
Michigan never trailed, although the score got close a few times in the 1st half. Michigan won the opening tip, and two passes later they had a dunk to start the scoring, with just 5 seconds gone. They opened up a quick 8-0 lead, and pushed it up at 11-2 at the 15:25 mark. It looked like they were going to run away with the game, then they stalled. EMU went on a 10-4 run, and suddenly Michigan was only up 3 points (15-12) with 12:38 to go. Michigan settled down, and went on their own 12-2 run to push their lead back up to a comfortable 13 points (27-14) at the 7:27 mark. They fell asleep again, and let EMU get back within 3 points (31-28) with 2:09 left before halftime. Fortunately, they closed out the half with an 8-0 run, to make it 39-28 at the half.
The 2nd half was a little more comfortable for Michigan. They let EMU get within 9 points a few times, but never closer than that. They kept the lead in the 15-17 point range for much of the half, finally going over 20 points (71-49) at the 7:39 mark. They got the lead as high as 27 points before winning by 25. All the healthy scholarship players got to play, and almost everyone scored.
Stats
The game stats were pretty good:
Overall shooting – 30/60 = 50.0% (Very good)
3-point shooting – 12/31 = 38.7% (Good)
Free throws – 15/23 = 65.2% (Decent)
Rebounds – Michigan won 36-29
Turnovers – Michigan won 12-21
Who Started?
The starters were Elliot Cadeau, J.P. Estrella, Ricky Liburd, Trey McKenney, and Moustapha Thiam.
Who Looked Good?
McKenney was the leading scorer, with 21 points on good shooting: 8/13 overall, 3/7 from deep. He was a leader on the floor.
Estrella looked very good out there, playing both power forward and backup center. He scored 14 points on good shooting: 6/9 overall, 2/3 from deep.
Thiam looked good on defense (4 blocked shots), but wasn’t very effective on offense. He did hit double figures (11 points), but most of them were from the free throw line: 7/9. He only shot 2/5 overall, 0/1 from deep.
Cadeau was the 4th starter in double figures, with 10 points on poor shooting: 2/7 overall, 1/4 from deep. He did lead the team in assists (8) and rebounds (7). Also, turnovers (3).
Quinn Costello had a very good game off the bench, with 16 points on good shooting: 6/10 overall, 4/8 from deep. He looked very comfortable and poised out there, especially for a true freshman in his first game.
Joseph Hartman also had a good game off the bench, with 10 points on very good shooting: 4/5 overall, 2/3 from deep.
Who Looked Not-So-Good?
Liburd started, and looked very fast and athletic out there, but he didn’t do much offensively: 2 points on decent shooting: 1/2 overall, 0/1 from deep. He’s still recuperating from a hip injury, so he’s on a “minutes restriction”, and only played 10+ minutes, all in the 1st half.
Oscar Goodman played for 15+ minutes and didn’t score, missing all 3 of his shot attempts, all from deep.
Kenny Noland played for almost 14 minutes as the backup point guard, and he didn’t do much. He scored 2 points on mediocre shooting: 1/3 overall, 0/1 from deep.
Jalen Reed played for almost 13 minutes, and he didn’t do much. He scored 1 point on lousy shooting: 0/3 overall, 1/3 from the free throw line.
Malachi Brown played for 8+ minutes, and he didn’t do much. He didn’t attempt a shot.
Who Else Played?
No one else played.
Who Didn’t Play?
Six players on the roster didn’t play in this game. Here’s the breakdown:
Two players are out for the season, both with ACL (knee) injuries: Lincoln Cosby and Brandon McCoy Jr. I won’t be mentioning them again in my weekly “Who Didn’t Play” list.
Roddy Gayle Jr. is healthy and ready to play, but his eligibility status is still up in the air. Until the legal details are worked out, Michigan is not going to let him play. I don’t know how soon the legal stuff will be resolved.
Marcus Møller is healthy and ready to play, but he had a medical checkup back in his home country (Denmark) that kept him out of this game. He should play in the next game.
There are only two players who are obviously on the Scout Team (Howard Eisley Jr. and Harrison Hochberg), and neither of them played in this game.
What Does It Mean?
The EMU game was only an exhibition game against an opponent that Michigan was expected to handle easily, so there’s only so much you can learn from it. We saw that Michigan has a lot of talented players, but we also saw that they have a lot to work on.
This game has no effect on Michigan’s standing or post-season chances. It was just an exhibition.
This Week
This week Michigan plays at another exhibition game. On Friday (10/16/2026, 7:00 p.m., B1G+) they play Oregon State in Crisler Arena.
Oregon State was 17-16 (9-9 in WCC) last season. They lost in the 2nd round of their conference tournament, and didn’t play in a post-season tournament. Their only impressive wins were over Arizona State and Washington State, and they had unimpressive losses to Evansville, Iona, Massachusetts, Cal Baptist, Sam Houston, Santa Clara (twice), Pacific (twice), Portland, St. Mary’s, and Seattle. They don’t have any noteworthy players, but they do have a lot of height: a 6’11” player, a 7’0” player, a 7’1” player, and a 7’2” player. That’s a lot of tall players! This will be a much more challenging exhibition game than the EMU game, although Michigan is certainly expected to win.
Check back next week to find out what happened and why.
Go Blue!
