The University of Michigan men’s basketball team played one (exhibition) game this past week, and they won it.  On Friday (10/16/2026), they beat Oregon State 98-93 in Crisler Arena.  Since this was just an exhibition game, Michigan’s record is still 0-0.

What Happened?

This one didn’t feel like an exhibition game.  Both teams were playing hard to win, and it was a close, exciting, back-and-forth game.  Neither team could pull away, and either team could have won it in the last minute.  Fortunately, Michigan played just better enough in the final minute to win it.

Game Flow

Oregon State jumped out to a quick 7-2 lead in the first 2 minutes.  Yikes.  OSU made their first 5 shots before they finally missed, and they led 17-13 at the 12:20 mark.  Michigan finally got their act together and pulled ahead 22-17 with 11:21 to go.  That was a nice 9-0 run.  The lead went back and forth for a few minutes, and it was tied (25-25) at the 9:01 mark.  Michigan went on a 14-1 run to lead by 13 (39-26) with 4:06 to go, and it looked like they might have the game under control, when OSU started coming back.  They got the deficit down to 7 points (41-34) at the 2:04 mark, then down to 3 points (45-42) at halftime.

OSU scored the first 4 points of the 2^nd half, and completely erased the 13-point Michigan lead, going up 46-45 at the 19:00 mark.  The next 10 minutes saw 5 ties and 11 lead changes, with neither team able to pull more than 4 points ahead.  Michigan finally got a 5-point lead (72-67) with 9:40 to go, but it didn’t last.  OSU went ahead 76-74 at the 7:12 mark, and that was the last time they led.  Michigan tied it up (76-76) with 7:00 to go, and went ahead for good 79-76 a few seconds later.  They got their lead up to 6 a few times, and OSU got within a point once (89-88 at the 1:46 mark), but Michigan played tough down the stretch to hang on for a 5-point win.

Stats

The game stats were pretty good:

Overall shooting – 34/67 = 50.7% (Very good)

3-point shooting – 8/31 = 25.8% (Poor)

Free throws – 22/32 = 68.8% (Decent)

Rebounds – Michigan lost 29-37

Turnovers – Michigan won 7-17

Michigan won this game with good overall shooting and minimal turnovers.

Who Started?

The starters were Elliot Cadeau, J.P. Estrella, Ricky Liburd, Trey McKenney, and Moustapha Thiam.

Who Looked Good?

Cadeau was the leading scorer, with 27 points on decent shooting: 7/16 overall, 1/6 from deep, 12/15 from the line.  He also had 8 assists.  He scored 1 point in the 1^st half and 26 points in the 2^nd half.  He put Michigan on his back in the last 10 minutes.

Thiam had a much better offensive game this time, with 19 points and 10 rebounds, for a double-double.  He also had 5 assists.  He shot pretty well: 7/11 overall, 2/6 from deep, 3/7 from the line.  He fired up a couple ill-advised 3-pointers, but he did make 2 of them.

McKenney had another good game, with 18 points on decent shooting: 7/13 overall, 2/6 from deep, 2/2 from the line.  He should shoot 3-pointers better than that.

Estrella almost hit double figures, with 9 points (and 7 rebounds) on decent shooting: 4/6 overall, 1/2 from deep.

Quinn Costello had a good game off the bench, with 10 points on good shooting: 2/4 overall, 2/4 from deep, 4/4 from the line.  When he squares up for his 3-point shot, he’s deadly.  The 2 he missed were wild shots where he wasn’t set.

Kenny Noland played for almost 24 minutes as the backup point guard, and he did a nice job.  He scored 6 points on decent shooting: 3/6 overall, 0/2 from deep.  He had 3 assists.

Who Looked Not-So-Good?

Liburd started, but he didn’t do much offensively: he scored Michigan’s first basket on a steal-dunk, and he scored Michigan’s last point on a free throw, and in between he didn’t do much.  He ended up with 3 points on lousy shooting: 1/3 overall, 0/2 from deep, 1/4 from the line.

Jalen Reed didn’t do much off the bench.  He scored 4 points on decent shooting: 2/4 overall, 0/1 from deep.

Joseph Hartman didn’t do much off the bench, with 2 points.

Oscar Goodman played for 4+ minutes and didn’t score, missing his only shot attempt, a 3-pointer.

Malachi Brown played for 4+ minutes, and didn’t score, missing his only shot attempt.

Who Else Played?

No one else played.

Who Didn’t Play?

Roddy Gayle Jr. is still waiting for the legal details of his eligibility to be worked out, so he didn’t play.

Marcus Møller was dressed and on the bench, but didn’t play.  His medical trip to Denmark disrupted his practice time.

The two players on the Scout Team (Howard Eisley Jr. and Harrison Hochberg) didn’t play in this game.

What Does It Mean?

We learned a lot more from this exhibition game than from the exhibition game against Eastern Michigan last week.  Oregon State is a much better opponent, and they gave Michigan all they could handle.  Regardless, Michigan looked better than OSU, but it was their own sloppiness that kept the game close.  If they can clean up some of the dumb mistakes, they should be able to take control of the game more easily.

This game has no effect on Michigan’s standing or post-season chances.  It was just an exhibition.

This Week

This week Michigan plays their third and final exhibition game.  On Sunday (10/25/2026, 1:00 p.m., B1G+) they play Houston in Grand Rapids, MI.  The first AP Poll hasn’t come out yet, but when it does, Houston will probably be ranked higher (around #18) than Michigan (maybe #22).

Houston was 30-7 (14-4 in Big 12) last season.  They lost in the semifinals of their conference tournament, and made it to the Sweet 16 in the Big Dance.  They had impressive wins over (#22) Auburn, (#14) Arkansas, (#14) Texas Tech, (#16) BYU, and (#16) Kansas.  They didn’t have any unimpressive losses.  They don’t have any noteworthy players, and they don’t have much height: a 6’10” player and a 7’0” player.  This game is a true “toss up”.  Michigan certainly has the talent to beat anyone this season, but they need to have the right lineups out there, based on who’s hot, and they need to stop making dumb mistakes.  That’s why they play exhibition games, to work these things out.

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

Go Blue!

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 1^st 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 2^nd 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 4^th 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 1^st 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 2^nd 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!