Category: Basketball

The (#3) University of Michigan men’s basketball team played two games this past week, and they won both of them.  On Thursday (03/05/2026), they won at Iowa 71-68, then on Sunday (03/08/2026), they beat (#8) Michigan State 90-80 in Crisler Arena.  Michigan’s final regular season record is 29-2 (19-1 in Big Ten).

What Happened?

Michigan finished both games strong, and finished the regular season strong as well.  In the Iowa game, the score was tied in the last minute, and Michigan finished strong to seal the victory.  In the MSU game, State was within 3 points with less than 4 minutes to go, and Michigan finished very strong to win comfortably.  It was a great finish to the regular season.  Michigan had already locked up the outright regular season Big Ten championship last week when they beat Illinois, but they didn’t want to endanger their potential #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament by losing either of the two remaining regular season games.  They took care of business.

The win over MSU gave Michigan a rare season sweep of the Spartans, and also gave them their 19^th Big Ten win, a new conference record.  It also gave Michigan a 4-game lead over the 2^nd place teams (Nebraska, Michigan State, and Illinois) in the final Big Ten standings.  It’s been a while since a team won the Big Ten by 4 games.

After the game, Michigan held their Senior Day ceremony, and honored 5 seniors/grad students:

• Nimari Burnett – Nimari played for 3 years at Michigan, and he was a steady, quiet leader.
• Roddy Gayle Jr. – Roddy played for 2 years at Michigan, and he has been a valuable sub.
• Yaxel Lendeborg – Yaxel only played for 1 year at Michigan, but he’s made the most of it.
• Charlie May – Charlie played for 2 years at Michigan, on the Scout Team.
• Will Tschetter – Will played for 4 years at Michigan, a true rarity these days.  In fact, there were only 33 players in Division 1 basketball this year who played all 4 years at only one school.

Game Flow

The Iowa game was close and tense the whole way.  There were 8 ties and 14 lead changes.  Michigan led more often than Iowa, but they couldn’t pull away.  Michigan took an early 3-0 lead, then Iowa went on a miserable 11-2 run to go up 11-5 at the 14:19 mark.  Michigan clawed their way back, and got another lead (14-13) with 10:05 to go.  The lead went back and forth for a couple minutes, then Michigan started to pull away.  They were up 5 points (26-21) at the 3:37 mark, when they did their traditional pre-halftime swoon.  They let Iowa go on a 9-4 run to end the half, all tied up: 30-30.

Michigan opened the 2^nd half with a nice run to regain the lead.  They were up by 7 points (42-35) at the 16:07 mark, but they couldn’t hold the lead.  Iowa went on another run, this time 9-2, to go up by 3 points (46-43) with 12:25 to go.  Michigan kept their composure, and slowly regained the lead, up 10 points (63-53) at the 6:14 mark.  This was the largest lead for either team, and it didn’t last long.  Iowa promptly went on an 11-1 run to tie the game, 64-64 with 1:57 to go.  Michigan scored to go up by 2, then Iowa tied it again (66-66) at the 0:52 mark.  Michigan led the rest of the way, making one more basket and enough of their free throws to win by 3 points, 71-68.

The MSU game was also close and tense the whole way.  There were 5 ties and 5 lead changes, although Michigan led the game for most of the time.  The few times MSU led, Michigan didn’t let them get to far ahead, never by more than 5 points.  Michigan had a few decent leads, 8-9 points, but State always came back and either got close or pulled ahead.  All except for the final surge by Michigan to put the game away.

State scored the first 5 points, but Michigan kept pace, and finally tied things up (7-7) at the 15:28 mark.  Michigan went ahead, and pushed their lead up to 7 points (14-7) with 13:24 left.  State hung around, getting as close as 3 points a couple times, but Michigan finally pushed their lead up to 9 points (23-14) at the 9:00 mark.  State went on a 13-4 run to tie it up (27-27) with 5:58 left, but Michigan went back ahead by 6 points (35-29) at the 4:09 mark.  State wouldn’t go away, and climbed back into the lead (41-37) with 1:47 left in the half.  Fortunately, Michigan went on a 5-0 run to end the half up by one point, 42-41.

The 2^nd half was more of the same.  Michigan led most of the time, but they couldn’t pull away from MSU.  Michigan pushed their 1-point halftime lead to 6 points (49-43) at the 17:42 mark, but State went on an 8-2 run to tie it up again (51-51) with 15:27 to go.  It was still tied up (53-53) a few seconds later, when State went ahead again.  MSU was up by 4 points (61-57) at the 12:59 mark, but Michigan tied it up again (61-61) with 11:51 to go.  It was Michigan’s turn to go ahead, and they led by 5-7 points for the next 5 minutes.  With 6:10 to go, Michigan was up by 5 points (73-68), but State got within 3 points (73-70) at the 3:47 mark.  That was as close as they’d get the rest of the game.  Michigan pushed the lead up to 11 points (83-72) with 0:54 left, and held off every push by State to get back in it, winning by 10.  It was a glorious victory.

Stats

The stats for the Iowa game were solid.  Michigan shot well overall (24/45 = 53.3%), they shot 3-pointers very well (6/12 = 50.0%), and they shot free throws pretty well (17/22 = 77.3%).  They crushed Iowa on the boards (38-25), but they gave away all 13 of those extra possessions in turnovers (18-5).  They won this game with great shooting and rebounding, but they almost lost it due to heavy turnovers.

The stats for the MSU game were very good.  Michigan shot well overall (27/55 = 49.1%), they shot 3-pointers very well (10/22 = 45.5%), and they shot free throws very well (26/29 = 89.7%).  They won the rebounding battle (35-32), but lost the turnover battle (10-7).  They won this game with superior shooting.

Who Started?

The starters for both games were Nimari Burnett, Elliot Cadeau, Morez Johnson Jr., Yaxel Lendeborg, and Aday Mara.

Who Looked Good?

Lendeborg was the star of both games, with a tied-for-team-high 16 points vs. Iowa, and a team-high 27 points vs. MSU.  He had a great game vs. MSU in his final appearance in Crisler, shooting 8/12 overall, 5/6 from 3-point range, and 6/6 from the free throw line.

Johnson was the only other Michigan player in double figures for both games, with a tied-for-team-high 16 points vs. Iowa, and 18 points vs. MSU.  He also had 8 and 7 rebounds.

Mara had one good game (14 points vs. Iowa) and one decent game (4 points vs. MSU).  He was in foul trouble for most of the State game, only playing 19 minutes.

Cadeau had one good game (11 points vs. Iowa) and one lousy game (2 points vs. MSU).  He got 9 of his 11 points in the Iowa game at the free throw line.

Burnett had one good game (10 points vs. MSU) and one lousy game (3 points vs. Iowa).  It was nice that he hit double figures in his final game in Crisler.

Roddy Gayle Jr. had one good game (15 points vs. MSU) and one decent game (6 points vs. Iowa) off the bench.  It was nice that he hit double figures in his final game in Crisler.

Trey McKenney had one good game (12 points vs. MSU) and one decent game (5 points vs. Iowa) off the bench.

Who Looked Not-So-Good?

Will Tschetter had another worthless week off the bench, with 0 and 2 points.  He deserved better in his final game at Crisler.

Who Else Played?

No one else played.

Who Didn’t Play?

The scholarship players who didn’t play were Oscar Goodman and Malick Kordel.  L.J. Cason and Winters Grady are both out with injuries.

None of the Scout Team players (Howard Eisley Jr., Harrison Hochberg and Charlie May) got to play this week.

What Does It Mean?

These were two weird games.  On the one hand, since Michigan had clinched the regular season Big Ten championship the week before, they were meaningless in the Big Ten standings.  On the other hand, they were very important, since they kept Michigan at #3 in the AP Poll, and kept them in the running for a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.  They give Michigan some momentum and confidence heading into the Big Ten Tournament and the NCAA Tournament.  Plus, it’s always great to beat State.

This Week

This week, Michigan plays at least one game, in the Big Ten Tournament in the United Center in Chicago.  Since they won the Big Ten regular season championship (by 4 games!), they are the #1 seed, and they get a triple-bye into the Friday (quarterfinal) round.  They will play on Friday (03/13/2026, 12:00 p.m. EDT, BTN) against TBD.  They won’t know their opponent until the game on Thursday is played.  The teams they could face are:

• Tuesday – (#16 seed) Maryland vs. (#17 seed) Oregon
• Wednesday – Winner of the Tuesday game vs. (#9 seed) Iowa
• Thursday – Winner of the Wednesday game vs. (#8 seed) Ohio State

Michigan beat all 4 of these teams in the regular season, either by a little (Iowa – 3 points) or a lot (Maryland – 18 points, Oregon – 10 points, and Ohio State – 12 points and 11 points).

If Michigan wins the game on Friday, they will play in the semifinals on Saturday (03/14/2026, 1:00 p.m. EDT, CBS) against another TBD.  The possible teams for Saturday’s game are:

• Wednesday – (#13 seed) USC vs. (#12 seed) Washington
• Thursday – Winner of the Wednesday game vs. (#5 seed) Wisconsin
• Friday – Winner of the Thursday game vs. (#4 seed) Illinois

It would be nice for Michigan to get another shot at Wisconsin, the only Big Ten team to beat Michigan in the regular season.  They beat all the other teams in the regular season.

If Michigan wins the game on Saturday, they will play for the Big Ten Tournament championship on Sunday (03/15/2026, 2:30 p.m. EDT, CBS) vs. the winner of the other side of the bracket.  They beat all the teams on the other side of the bracket in the regular season.

Check back next week to find out what happened and why.  I’ll be out of town, with spotty Internet connectivity, so my report might be a little different.

Go Blue!

The (#3) University of Michigan men’s basketball team played two games this past week, and they won both of them.  On Tuesday (02/24/2026), they beat Minnesota 77-67 in Crisler Arena, then on Friday (02/27/2026), they won at (#10) Illinois 84-70.  Michigan’s record improves to 27-2 (17-1 in Big Ten).  Michigan clinched 1^st place outright in the Big Ten.

What Happened?

With these two wins, Michigan clinched the outright Big Ten regular season championship!  When they beat Minnesota on Tuesday, they clinched at least a share of the title, but they still had to win one more game to clinch the outright title, and they did it on Friday at Illinois.  This is a Big Deal: the Big Ten is loaded this season, and winning the championship is impressive.  Winning it with two games left to play is very impressive.

Michigan looked good vs. Minnesota and very good vs. Illinois.  They won both games convincingly, especially the Illinois game.  It was very satisfying to finally beat Illinois, since Michigan had lost the last 4 games in Champaign and the last 9 games overall to Illinois.

Trivia Question:  Prior to this season, when was the last time Michigan beat Michigan State in East Lansing and Purdue in West Lafayette AND Illinois in Champaign all in the same season?  The answer is at the end of the article.

Game Flow

The 1^st half of the Minnesota game was close, with 2 ties and 10 lead changes.  Michigan led for much of the half, but they had trouble pulling away from Minnesota.  It looked like they were trying too hard.  The few times Minnesota led, it was only by 2-4 points.  Michigan was up early (5-0 at the 18:53 mark), but Minnesota went on a 13-4 run to go up by 4 points (13-9) with 13:33 left.   Michigan caught them and pulled back in front (30-20) with 2:58 to go, then they let Minnesota go on an 8-2 run to end the half, with Michigan clinging to a 4-point lead, 32-28.  It was a little worrying.

The 2^nd half was also a little scary.  Michigan led for the entire half, but let Minnesota hang around.  In the first 11 minutes of the half, Michigan led by as many as 9 points, but as few as 2 points.  Finally, at the 8:49 mark, Michigan got their lead back up to 10 points (57-47), and that was the game.  Michigan pushed the lead as high as 18 points, but never let it get below 10 points, winning by 10.

The Illinois game was also close in the 1^st half, with neither team able to get more than 9 points ahead.  Illinois led by 5 points (16-11) at the 13:03 mark, and that was the high-water mark for them.  Michigan went on an 11-0 run to go up 6 points (22-16) with 9:45 left, and Illinois never led again.  Michigan pushed their lead up to 9 points (38-29) with 0:42 to go in the 1^st half, and led by 7 points (38-31) at halftime.

It looked like Illinois might catch up early in the 2^nd half.  They got within 5 points (42-37) at the 18:09 mark, but Michigan pushed their lead up to 10 points (51-41) with 16:11 to go.  Michigan kept the lead in the 7-9 point range for a while, and finally got it over 10 points (63-52) at the 9:51 mark.  Once they got it over 10 points, Illinois wilted, and Michigan pushed the lead up as high as 21 points (75-54) with 6:49 to go, and coasted home.  They still had a 20 point lead (81-61) with 1:48 left, and they let Illinois bomb away from 3-point range a few times to run out the clock, winning by 14 points.

Stats

The stats for the Minnesota game were solid.  Michigan shot well overall (29/58 = 50.0%), they shot 3-pointers well (14/33 = 42.4%), and they were perfect shooting free throws (5/5 = 100.0%).  I had to look twice at the rebounding stats: Michigan won the rebounding battle (39-18).  Minnesota only had 18 rebounds?  Amazing!  Of course, Michigan lost the turnover battle (14-8).  Michigan won this game with good shooting and great rebounding.

The stats for the Illinois game were very good.  Michigan shot very well overall (31/59 = 52.5%), they shot 3-pointers well (8/22 = 36.4%), and they shot free throws well (14/17 = 82.4%).  Michigan won the rebounding battle (34-30), and tied in the turnover battle (10-10).  Michigan won this game with good shooting and solid rebounding.

Who Started?

The starters for both games were Nimari Burnett, Elliot Cadeau, Morez Johnson Jr., Yaxel Lendeborg, and Aday Mara.

Who Looked Good?

Mara had the best week this week, with 10 and 19 points.  He shot extremely well: 4/4 vs. Minnesota and 8/9 vs. Illinois.  He was also 2/2 and 3/3 from the free throw line!

Cadeau had one good game (15 points vs. Minnesota) and one decent game (7 points vs. Illinois).  He also had 5 assists in each game.

Lendeborg had one good game (16 points vs. Illinois) and one lousy game (3 points vs. Minnesota).

Johnson had a great game against his former team (Illinois – 19 points) and a decent game against Minnesota (6 points).  He was the star in the Illinois game, with 11 rebounds, giving him a double-double.  The Illinois fans were relentless in booing him, but he ignored them and let his game do the talking.

Burnett had a quiet week, with 8 and 3 points.

L.J. Cason had a good week off the bench, with 14 and 9 points.  Unfortunately, he tore the ACL in his right knee in the Illinois game, and he’s done for the season.  This is a huge setback for Michigan, since Cason was playing a very valuable role, backing up Cadeau at point guard and shooting well from 3-point range.

Trey McKenney had one good game (12 points vs. Minnesota) and one decent game (6 points vs. Illinois) this week off the bench.

Roddy Gayle Jr. had a decent week off the bench, with 9 and 2 points.

Who Looked Not-So-Good?

Will Tschetter was almost worthless this week off the bench, with 0 and 3 points.

Who Else Played?

No one else played.

Who Didn’t Play?

The scholarship players who didn’t play were Oscar Goodman and Malick Kordel.  Winters Grady is out with an injury.

None of the Scout Team players (Howard Eisley Jr., Harrison Hochberg and Charlie May) got to play this week.

What Does It Mean?

These were two very important wins, for several reasons.  The most obvious reason is that they gave Michigan an outright Big Ten regular season championship, along with the #1 seed (and the triple bye) in the Big Ten Tournament.  They also should keep Michigan at #3 in the AP Poll, and in line for a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.  They also gave Michigan 17 Big Ten wins, which is a school record, and they gave Coach May at least one win over every other Big Ten team in just his second season at Michigan.

This Week

This week, Michigan plays 2 games, their last 2 games of the regular season.  On Thursday (03/05/2026, 8:00 p.m. EST, Peacock), they play at Iowa, then on Sunday (03/08/2026, 4:30 p.m., CBS), they play (#13) Michigan State in Crisler Arena.  The MSU game is Senior Night, and the Senior Night ceremony will be held AFTER the game, not before.  Also, the team will celebrate their outright Big Ten regular season championship after the Senior Night ceremony.

Iowa is currently 20-9 (10-8 in Big Ten), with impressive wins over Xavier, UCLA, Indiana, and (#9) Nebraska, and unimpressive losses to Minnesota, Maryland, and Penn State.  They don’t have any noteworthy players, and they don’t have much height: a 6’10” player and a 6’11” player.  This is a game that Michigan should win handily, but things are always tricky on the road in the Big Ten.  Carver-Hawkeye Arena has been a tough place for Michigan to win, so they will have to play a solid game to get the “W”.

Michigan State is currently 24-5 (14-4 in Big Ten).  Since Michigan beat them in East Lansing back on 01/30/2026, they have a couple impressive wins over (#5) Illinois and (#8) Purdue, and a couple unimpressive losses to Minnesota and Wisconsin.  This game was supposed to be a battle for the Big Ten title on the last day of the regular season, but Michigan ran away with the race a few games early.  It is still a very important game for both teams, as they battle for seeding in the NCAA Tournament.  It is a very important game for Michigan for several other reasons: it would be great to sweep MSU in the regular season, it would be great for Michigan to have a nice winning streak and momentum going into the postseason, and it would be very nice to win the game before the Senior Night ceremony and Big Ten championship celebration.

Check back next week to find out what happened and why.

Go Blue!

Trivia Answer: The last time Michigan won at MSU, Purdue, and Illinois in the same season was 1994.

The (#1) University of Michigan men’s basketball team played two games this past week, and they won one and lost the other.  On Tuesday (02/17/2026), they won at (#7) Purdue 91-80, then on Saturday (02/21/2026), they lost to (#3) Duke 68-63 in Washington, DC.  Michigan’s record is now 25-2 (15-1 in Big Ten).  Michigan is still all alone in 1^st place in the Big Ten.

What Happened?

It was great that Michigan finally got the #1 ranking in the AP Poll, but they only got to enjoy it for one week.  With the loss to Duke, Michigan will undoubtedly drop out of the #1 spot, hopefully no further than #3 or #4.  Since (#2) Houston also lost, Duke will probably be #1 this week.

Michigan played very well on Tuesday against Purdue, but they were flat and “off” against Duke.  Duke is a very good team, but if Michigan had played their “A” game, they would have beaten them.

Trivia Question:  Prior to this season, when was the last time Michigan beat Michigan State in East Lansing and Purdue in West Lafayette in the same season?  The answer is at the end of the article.

Game Flow

The Purdue game started out as a back-and-forth affair, with Purdue going ahead 5-0 and 7-2, before Michigan went ahead 8-7 at the 14:58 mark.  Purdue had their last lead of the game (11-10) with 13:36 left, then Michigan started to pull away.  Michigan went on a beautiful 16-0 run over the next 4 minutes, and suddenly it was 26-11 at the 9:28 mark.  Purdue finally scored again, but Michigan kept building their lead, pushing it up to 20 points (42-22) at the 4:23 mark.  The lead was still 20 points (48-28) with 1:55 to go, but Purdue managed to trim 4 points off their deficit before halftime, making the score 48-32.

The 2^nd half was just a matter of Michigan trading time for points.  They let Purdue chip away at the lead, but very slowly.  At the 19:27 mark, Michigan had actually extended their lead to 19 points (51-32), and it was still 16 points (69-53) with 9:25 to go.  Purdue got as close as 11 points (74-63) with 5:11 left, but Michigan pushed it back up to 16 points (79-63) at the 4:22 mark.  So, at this point, Purdue hadn’t taken a single point off their halftime deficit in 15:38.  In the final 4:22 they managed to get as close as 8 points a few times: 81-73 with 2:05 left, 83-75 with 1:30 left, and 86-78 with 0:53 left, but that was as close as they could get.  Michigan got the stops and made their free throws down the stretch, winning by 11.

The Duke game was close the whole way, with neither team ever getting a double-digit lead.  The 1^st half was a seesaw battle, with 5 ties and 13 lead changes.  Michigan led more often than Duke, but never by more than 5 points.  The key moment for the entire game came in the last 3 minutes of the half.  Michigan was up by 4 points (33-29) at the 3:11 mark, when they let Duke go on a 6-0 run to end the half up by 2 points, 35-33.  Michigan never led or tied again.  The really frustrating part was that Michigan had the ball with the shot clock off and the score tied (33-33), and they took the last shot with 4 seconds left.  It missed, but Michigan fouled a Duke player on the rebound with 0.8 seconds left, and he made 2 free throws to give Duke a lead they never surrendered.  Michigan could have been 2-3 points ahead at halftime, but instead they were 2 points behind, and never recovered.

The 2^nd half was one long frustrating mess.  Duke never trailed, but Michigan stayed close, and got within one point a couple times, the last one being 58-57 with 3:49 to go.  The rest of the way, Michigan just couldn’t get the stops they needed or make the shots they needed, and Duke kept them at arm’s length.

Stats

The stats for the Purdue game were very impressive.  Michigan shot pretty well overall (30/57 = 52.6%), they shot 3-pointers very well (13/23 = 56.5%), and they shot free throws well (18/23 = 78.3%).  They won the rebounding battle (39-31), but lost the turnover battle badly (14-6).  They won this game with great shooting and good rebounding.

The stats for the Duke game were sad.  Michigan shot poorly overall (22/55 = 40.0%), they shot 3-pointers terribly (6/25 = 24.0%), and they shot free throws decently (13/18 = 72.2%).  They lost the rebounding battle badly (41-28), but won the turnover battle (7-11).  They lost this game with miserable shooting and terrible rebounding.  This is one of the few games this season where Michigan has been out-rebounded.

Who Started?

The starters for both games were Nimari Burnett, Elliot Cadeau, Morez Johnson Jr., Yaxel Lendeborg, and Aday Mara.

Who Looked Good?

Lendeborg had a good week, with 13 and 21 points.  He was the high scorer for Michigan in the Duke game, and he was the main reason the game was close.

Johnson also had a good week, with 12 and 13 points.  He also had 11 rebounds in the Purdue game, for a solid double-double. 

Mara had 10 points in each game, and 11 rebounds in the Purdue game, for another double-double.  He was hampered by foul trouble in the Duke game, which really limited Michigan’s inside offense.

Cadeau had one good game (17 points vs. Purdue) and one decent game (8 points vs. Duke).  He had the worst shooting of all the Michigan players in the Duke game: 1/8 overall, 1/6 from deep.  He scored most of his points on free throws (5/6).

L.J. Cason had a good week off the bench, with 13 and 7 points.

Trey McKenney had one good game (13 points vs. Purdue) and one quiet game (2 points vs. Duke) this week off the bench.

Who Looked Not-So-Good?

Burnett was almost non-existent this week, with 5 and 0 points.

Roddy Gayle Jr. had a quiet week off the bench, with 5 and 2 points.

Will Tschetter was almost worthless this week off the bench, with 3 and 0 points.

Who Else Played?

No one else played.

Who Didn’t Play?

The scholarship players who didn’t play were Oscar Goodman and Malick Kordel.  Winters Grady is out with an injury.

None of the Scout Team players (Howard Eisley Jr., Harrison Hochberg and Charlie May) got to play this week.

What Does It Mean?

The win over Purdue was huge, especially in Michigan’s quest to win the Big Ten regular season championship.  The Duke loss was a mixed bag: on the one hand, it will certainly knock Michigan out of the top spot in the AP Poll.  On the other hand, it won’t have any effect on the Big Ten race.  It also showed that Michigan can play with “the big boys”, since it was a close game on a night when Michigan didn’t play close to their best game.

Hopefully, when the AP Poll comes out on Monday afternoon, Michigan will still be in the top 4, which should keep them in line for a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.  Michigan still has 4 regular season Big Ten games left, 2 at home (Minnesota and Michigan State) and 2 on the road (Illinois and Iowa).  If Michigan wins 1 of these 4 games, they would clinch at least a tie for the Big Ten title.  A 2^nd win would clinch the title outright.  However, they really need to win all 4 of them to help their cause for a #1 seed in the Big Dance.

This Week

This week, Michigan plays 2 games.  On Tuesday (02/24/2026, 8:30 p.m., BTN), they play Minnesota in Crisler Arena, then on Friday (02/27/2026, 8:00 p.m. EST, FOX), they play at (#10) Illinois.

Minnesota is currently 13-14 (6-10 in Big Ten), with impressive wins over (#22) Indiana, (#19) Iowa, and (#10) Michigan State, and unimpressive losses to Missouri, San Francisco, Stanford, Santa Clara, USC, Ohio State, Penn State, Maryland, and Washington.  They don’t have any noteworthy players, and they don’t have much height: one 6’10” player.  This is a game that Michigan should win handily, which is why it is the ultimate “trap” game.  After playing a bunch of Top-25 teams away from Crisler, Michigan could feel overconfident playing a lower-division team at home.  They need to take Minnesota seriously.  The Gophers have beaten some good teams this season.

Illinois is currently 22-6 (13-4 in Big Ten), with impressive wins over (#11) Texas Tech, (#13) Tennessee, (#19) Iowa, (#4) Purdue, and (#5) Nebraska, and an unimpressive loss to UCLA.  They have a very noteworthy player: Keaton Wagler, the likely Big Ten Freshman of the Year.  He is averaging 18.2 points/game, with a 46-point game vs. Purdue, and a 34-point game vs. Wisconsin, along with 6 other games of 20+ points.  He will be a handful.  Illinois has plenty of height, with a 6’10” player, a 7’1” player, and a 7’2” player.  This will be a very challenging game for Michigan, especially in the State Farm Center, where Michigan hasn’t won since 01/10/2019 (4 games).  In fact, Illinois has won the last 9 games in the series.  Michigan can beat Illinois, but they will need to play their “A” game.

Check back next week to find out what happened and why.

Go Blue!

Trivia Answer: The last time Michigan won at MSU and Purdue in the same season was 1994.

The (#2) University of Michigan men’s basketball team played two games this past week, and they won both of them.  On Wednesday (02/11/2026), they won at Northwestern 87-75, then on Saturday (02/14/2026), they beat UCLA 86-56 in Crisler Arena.  Michigan’s record improves to 24-1 (14-1 in Big Ten).  Michigan is still all alone in 1^st place in the Big Ten.

What Happened?

Michigan had a few scary moments this week.  They were behind for much of the Northwestern game, and they gave up most of the lead they had built up against UCLA in the first 18 minutes during a scary last 2 minutes of the half.  Fortunately, Michigan kept their composure and finished strong in both games, winning by 12 and 30 points.

The Northwestern game was ugly, until it wasn’t.  Northwestern led for most of the game, and Michigan seemed powerless to catch them.  When the Michigan defense managed to stop Northwestern, the Michigan offense squandered the opportunity to score and cut into the deficit.  When the Michigan offense stopped shooting themselves in the foot, the Michigan defense would let Northwestern score easily to neutralize the offensive output.  It was very frustrating.  Once Michigan stopped throwing away their opportunities, they did fine, but it took 26 minutes for the tide to turn.

The UCLA game was much less uncomfortable.  Michigan never trailed, and except for a miserable 2-minute period just before halftime, they were in control of the game.  They were very sharp in the 2^nd half, and blew the game wide open.

Game Flow

Michigan actually led Northwestern early, up 3-0 and 5-0.  Northwestern promptly went on an 8-0 run to take the lead (8-5) at the 17:37 mark.  Michigan fought back, and went ahead for the last time in a long while, 10-8, with 16:24 left.  Northwestern went ahead, but Michigan managed to tie it up (17-17) at the 14:22 mark.  This is one of the turning points in the game: Michigan had 4 stops in a row, along with 3 offensive rebounds, but they wasted all 4 of these opportunities with 2 turnovers, 2 missed 2-point shots, and 3 missed 3-point shots.  Finally, with 12:28 left, Northwestern scored again (a 3-pointer), and the floodgates opened.  In the next 2 minutes, Northwestern shot 2/3 from 2-point range, 2/3 from 3-point range, and 2/2 from the free throw line.  At the same time, Michigan missed one 2-point shot, two 3-point shots, and committed a turnover.  The end result was a 12-0 run for Northwestern in a little over 2 minutes, and the game was suddenly out of hand at the 10:05 mark.  Northwestern kept the lead in the 9-11 point range for the rest of the half, up 9 points (44-35) at halftime.

Michigan has only been behind at halftime a handful of times this season, and this was the biggest deficit so far.  Michigan usually wins the first 4 minutes of the 2^nd half, but not in this game.  By the 1^st media timeout, at the 15:51 mark, Northwestern had increased their lead to 13 points, 54-41.  Things were looking grim.  Coming out of the timeout, Northwestern pushed their lead to a new high: 16 points (58-42) at the 14:22 mark.  That’s where the game finally turned around.  Michigan combined some stops with some offense, and started chipping away at the deficit.  By the 12:49 mark, they had it down to 11 points (58-47), then they went on an 11-2 run to get within 2 points (60-58) with 9:38 left.  Northwestern pushed their lead back up to 7 points (67-60) at the 8:42 mark, but Michigan went on an 8-0 run to go ahead for the first time in a long time, 68-67, with 7:14 to go.  Northwestern led one more time, 69-68, at the 6:39 mark, and then the game was tied up (69-69) at the 6:34 mark.  The rest of the way was all Michigan.  They went on a 6-0 run to go up 75-69, then another 8-2 run to push their lead up to 12 points (83-71) with 2:01 left.  Northwestern got within 8 points (83-75) at the 1:02 mark, but Michigan scored the last 4 points to win by 12.  It was a gutty, gritty, ugly win.

As I mentioned above, Michigan never trailed in the UCLA game.  They were up 5-0 at the 17:54 mark, then 10-3 with 15:31 left.  They kept the lead in the 7-9 point range for a while, and finally got it up to 10 (22-12) at the 11:14 mark.  UCLA hung around, and Michigan just kept the lead in the 7-9 point range for most of the rest of the half, until the ugly last 2 minutes.  With 2:39 left, Michigan had their biggest lead of the game, 39-28, and then things got out of hand for a few minutes.  UCLA hit a 3-pointer, Michigan made 1 of 2 free throws, and the score was 40-31 at the 2:04 mark.  UCLA made a 2-pointer, Michigan threw the ball away, then fouled.  UCLA made 1 of 2 free throws, Michigan missed a 3-pointer, and UCLA made another 2-pointer with 27 seconds left.  Michigan played for the last shot, but threw the ball away (again), and UCLA made another 2-pointer at the buzzer.  Michigan’s nice 11-point lead was down to 2 points at halftime, 40-38.

At the start of the 2^nd half, it took Michigan 6 minutes to finally get their lead back up to 10 points (54-44) again.  It took them another 6 minutes to push the lead up over 20 points (68-47) at the 8:17 mark, and that was the game.  They held off UCLA the rest of the way, pushing the lead to 30 points in the last 20 seconds.  Look at the halftime score (40-38), then look at the final score (86-56).  Michigan held UCLA to 18 points in the 2^nd half, while scoring 46.  Total domination, at least for a half.

Stats

The stats for the Northwestern game were mediocre.  Michigan shot poorly overall (30/69 = 43.5%), they shot 3-pointers poorly (8/29 = 27.6%), and they shot free throws decently (19/27 = 70.4%).  They won the rebounding battle handily (47-30), but they lost the turnover battle (12-8).  They won this game with rebounding, but almost lost it with poor shooting and turnovers.

The stats for the UCLA game were pretty good.  Michigan shot very well overall (31/50 = 62.0%), they shot 3-pointers well (7/19 = 36.8%), and they shot free throws decently (17/26 = 65.4%).  They were behind in rebounds almost the entire game, but they managed to eke out a narrow win in the rebounding battle (30-29), and they won the turnover battle (9-13).  They won this game with good shooting and great (2^nd half) defense.

Who Started?

The starters for both games were Nimari Burnett, Elliot Cadeau, Morez Johnson Jr., Yaxel Lendeborg, and Aday Mara.

Who Looked Good?

L.J. Cason had a great week.  He was the leading scorer for Michigan in the Northwestern game, with 18 points, and he followed it up with a solid game against UCLA, scoring 13 points.  He provided the spark that brought Michigan back in the Northwestern game.

Lendeborg had a solid week, with 15 and 17 points.  He also had 12 and 8 rebounds, giving him a double-double in the Northwestern game.

Johnson had a good week, with 12 and 15 points. 

Cadeau also had a good week, scoring 9 points in each game.  He also had 7 and 5 assists.

Mara had a decent week, with 12 and 9 points.  You could tell that he was trying so hard (maybe too hard) in the UCLA game, playing against his former team.  He managed to score a decent number of points, and he had 8 rebounds and 3 blocked shots.

Burnett had a decent week, with 6 and 12 points.

Trey McKenney chipped in 12 and 2 points off the bench.  His 2-point performance vs. UCLA ended a streak of 7 games in a row where he had scored in double figures.

Who Looked Not-So-Good?

Roddy Gayle Jr. had a quiet week, scoring 3 and 5 points off the bench.

Will Tschetter also had a quiet week, scoring 0 and 4 points off the bench.

Who Else Played?

Oscar Goodman played in the last 3 minutes of the UCLA game, but didn’t attempt a shot.

Who Didn’t Play?

The only scholarship player who didn’t play was Malick Kordel.  Winters Grady is out with an injury.

None of the Scout Team players (Howard Eisley Jr., Harrison Hochberg and Charlie May) got to play this week.

What Does It Mean?

These were very important wins for several reasons:

• They keep Michigan all alone in 1^st place in the Big Ten, now with a 2-game lead on Illinois, Purdue, and Nebraska.
• They keep Michigan in line for a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
• They will probably help boost Michigan up to the #1 spot in this week’s AP Poll.  The current #1 team (Arizona) lost this past week, twice in fact.  Being ranked #1 doesn’t really mean much, but it’s a great recruiting and publicity tool.

This Week

This week, Michigan plays 2 very challenging games.  On Tuesday (02/17/2026, 6:30 p.m., Peacock), they play at (#13) Purdue, then on Saturday (02/21/2026, 6:30 p.m., ESPN), they play (#4) Duke in Capital One Arena in Washington (DC) in a game billed as “Duel In The District”.  It’s also billed as “The Edward Jones Capital Showcase Presented By Bad Boy Mowers”.  That’s a lot of names and sponsors.

Purdue is currently 21-4 (11-3 in Big Ten), with impressive wins over (#8) Alabama, (#15) Texas Tech, (#21) Auburn, Wisconsin, and (#7) Nebraska, and unimpressive losses to (#10) Iowa State (by 23 points at home), UCLA, and Indiana.  They have several noteworthy players (Fletcher Loyer, Braden Smith, and Trey Kaufman-Renn), and plenty of height: two 6’11” players and a 7’4” player.  Yes, another player taller than Mara.  Smith has been a terror against Michigan for his whole career, especially in West Lafayette.  This will be a very challenging game for Michigan, but they can win it if they play their “A” game.

Duke is currently 23-2 (12-1 in ACC), with impressive wins over Texas, (#24) Kansas, (#22) Arkansas, (#15) Florida, (#7) Michigan State, (#20) Louisville (twice), (#24) SMU, and (#20) Clemson.  They have no unimpressive losses.  They certainly do have a noteworthy player: Cameron Boozer, the megastar freshman who will probably be one of the top 3 NBA Draft picks this spring.  They don’t have a lot of height, only two 6’11” players.  This will be the most challenging game Michigan has played all season.  The result won’t affect the Big Ten race, but it will have major implications on the AP Poll and NCAA Tournament seedings.  Michigan can win this game, but it will take their best effort of the season.  They can’t afford to make many mistakes.

Check back next week to find out what happened and why.

Go Blue!

The (#2) University of Michigan men’s basketball team played two games this past week, and they won both of them.  On Thursday (02/05/2026), they beat Penn State 110-69 in Crisler Arena, then on Sunday (02/08/2026), they won at Ohio State 82-61.  Michigan’s record improves to 22-1 (12-1 in Big Ten).  This is Michigan’s best 23-game record in program history.  Michigan is all alone in 1^st place in the Big Ten.

What Happened?

Michigan has been in 1^st place in the Big Ten for the whole season, but they’ve been tied with a few other teams.  When they beat (#7) Michigan State on 01/30/2026, they handed MSU their 2^nd loss in Big Ten play, knocking them out of 1^st place.  When MSU beat (#5) Illinois in overtime on 02/07/2026, they handed Illinois their 2^nd loss in Big Ten play, knocking them out of 1^st place, and leaving Michigan all alone in 1^st place.  Michigan didn’t have the “Rivalry Hangover” that MSU did, when they lost their next game (at Minnesota) after losing to Michigan.  Instead, Michigan won both games this week convincingly.

Game Flow

The PSU game was another of those “get ahead early and crush the life out of the opponent” games that Michigan has enjoyed this season.  It was great to see another dominating performance, since Michigan has been winning by “only” 10-12 points lately, ever since the 30-point win over USC on 01/02/2026.  In this one, PSU led exactly once, 2-0, before Michigan overwhelmed them.  Michigan went on a sharp 15-0 run to make the score 15-2 at the 12:41 mark.  Yes, PSU only scored 2 points in the first 7:19 of the game.  Michigan kept building on their lead, pushing it up past 20 points (35-14) with 6:13 to go, and over 30 points (53-22) at the 1:04 mark.  They led by 32 points (56-24) at halftime.

The 2^nd half was more of the same.  Michigan never let the lead go below 30 points, and pushed it over 40 points (73-32) at the 15:27 mark.  At this point, the game was over.  Michigan kept the lead in the 39-41 point range for the rest of the game, getting it as high as 46, and coasting to a 41-point victory.  It really helped that PSU missed their first 14 3-point attempts.  They finally hit a 3-pointer with 7:22 left in game, finishing at 2/20.

Michigan never trailed in the OSU game, although it took a while for them to pull away.  Michigan led 2-0, OSU tied it 2-2, and Michigan went ahead for good 4-2 at the 18:51 mark.  Michigan kept the lead in the 4-6 point range for the next few minutes, although OSU crept within 2-3 point a couple times.  The turning point was the 6:38 mark: Michigan was only up by 2 points (26-24), when Aday Mara made the first 3-pointer of his career!  That sparked a Michigan rally, and they pushed their lead up as high as 12 points, settling for a 10-point lead (44-34) at halftime.  Incidentally, Mara made another 3-pointer at the 4:00 mark

Michigan toyed with OSU for the entire 2^nd half.  They kept the lead above 10 the rest of the way, mostly in the 12-14 point range for the first 13 minutes of the half.  They were up by 12 points (64-52) with 6:57 to go, when they surged ahead.  They pushed their lead up to 20 points (72-52) at the 4:14 mark, then ran the clock out to win by 21 points.

By the way: remember the loudmouth OSU reserve guard (Colin White) who predicted an OSU victory for the first game, in Crisler?  Well, he didn’t even get in this game.

Stats

The stats for the Penn State game were fabulous.  Michigan shot very well overall (40/66 = 60.6%), they shot 3-pointers very well (15/29 = 51.7%), and they shot free throws very well (15/17 = 88.2%).  They absolutely crushed PSU on the boards (44-21), but they lost the turnover battle (9-5).  They won this game with great shooting, great rebounding, and ferocious defense.  An interesting side note: Michigan out-rebounded PSU 24-4 in the first half.

The stats for the Ohio State game were good, but not as good as the PSU game.  Michigan shot well overall (33/72 = 45.8%), they shot 3-pointers well (10/24 = 41.7%), and they shot free throws very well (6/7 = 85.7%).  They dominated OSU on the boards (44-31), and they even won the turnover battle (8-12).  They won this game with solid shooting and rebounding.

Who Started?

The starters for both games were Nimari Burnett, Elliot Cadeau, Morez Johnson Jr., Yaxel Lendeborg, and Aday Mara.

Who Looked Good?

Burnett was the star of the PSU game, with a career-high 31 points.  He was “in the zone”, shooting 11/16 overall, 7/10 from deep.  When he wasn’t making a 3-pointer, he was dunking on PSU.  He was amazing!  He had a decent game vs. OSU, with 8 points, but the big story was his explosion against PSU.

Mara thought “it’s my turn for a career game” in the OSU game, so he did it.  He scored a career-high 24 points, including those two 3-pointers mentioned above.  He shot 11/16 overall, 2/3 from deep.  He also hit double figures (11 points) vs. PSU.

Trey McKenney is proving more and more valuable every week.  He’s a strong candidate for the Big Ten “6^th Man” award.  He had 12 points in each game, and he played excellent defense when he was in there.

Johnson hit double figures in both games (12 and 11 points), and he had 8 and 12 rebounds, giving him a double-double vs. OSU.

Lendeborg had one good game (14 points vs. OSU) and one decent game (6 points vs. PSU).  He contributed in other ways, such as 7 rebounds and 8 assists vs. PSU, and 14 rebounds vs. OSU, for another solid double-double.

L.J. Cason had a good week, with 12 and 8 points off the bench.

Cadeau didn’t have a very good week with scoring (7 and 2 points), but he did have 8 and 6 assists.  With all the other scoring threats around him, Michigan doesn’t need him to score a lot every game, he can contribute by running the offense.

Will Tschetter chipped in 9 and 3 points off the bench.

Who Looked Not-So-Good?

Roddy Gayle Jr. had a tough week.  He was ill and didn’t play vs. PSU, and he went scoreless (0/6) vs. his old team, OSU.  This may be the last time he gets to play against OSU, and you could tell that he wanted to have a big game in Columbus, but it didn’t happen.  Sigh.

Who Else Played?

Oscar Goodman got to play the most minutes of his career (10+) in the PSU blowout, and he took full advantage of it, scoring a career-high 6 points on 3/6 shooting.

Malick Kordel got to play 7 minutes in the PSU blowout, and he made 2 of 3 dunk attempts for 4 points.

Howard Eisley Jr. got in for the last minute of the PSU blowout, but never touched the ball.

Who Didn’t Play?

The scholarship player who didn’t play was Winters Grady.  Apparently, he has a serious foot injury, and he’s probably out for the rest of the season, with a slim chance he might be back in mid-March.

The Scout Team players who didn’t play were: Harrison Hochberg and Charlie May.

What Does It Mean?

These were two very important wins.  They kept Michigan in 1^st place in the Big Ten, they kept Michigan as the #2 team in the AP Poll, and they kept Michigan in line for a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.  At this point in the season, every win is crucial, and Michigan is humming along.

This Week

This week, Michigan plays 2 games.  On Wednesday (02/11/2026, 8:30 p.m. EST, BTN), they play at Northwestern, then on Saturday (02/14/2026, 12:45 p.m., CBS), they play UCLA in Crisler Arena.

Northwestern is currently 10-14 (2-11 in Big Ten), with an impressive win at USC, and unimpressive losses to Virginia, Oklahoma State, Butler, Minnesota, Rutgers, and Iowa.  They don’t have any noteworthy players, but they do have some height: a 6’11” player and a 7-footer.  This is a game that Michigan should win handily, but it can be tricky on the road in the Big Ten.  Michigan needs to keep playing their “A” game.

UCLA is currently 17-7 (9-4 in Big Ten), with an impressive win over (#4) Purdue, and unimpressive losses to California, Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio State, and Indiana.  They don’t have any noteworthy players, and they have some height: a 6’10” player and a 6’11” player.  This could be a challenging game for Michigan.  UCLA is a middle-of-the-pack Big Ten team this season, but they are still very dangerous.

Check back next week to find out what happened and why.

Go Blue!