After taking care of business in two exhibition games and the season opener, Michigan basketball is ready for a road test against a power conference opponent.
Michigan is 1-0 under new head coach Dusty May after obliterating Cleveland State by 48 points in the opener on Monday. The Wolverines will have had almost a full week off before facing Wake Forest on Sunday afternoon.
The game will be played at a technically neutral site — First Horizon Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina — albeit one just over 30 miles west of Wake Forest’s campus. That should give Michigan a pseudo-road environment, with most fans cheering against the Wolverines. (Next year, U-M gets its payback: a neutral-site game vs. Wake Forest at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.)
Here are three factors to watch on Sunday afternoon when the Wolverines and Demon Deacons tip off at 1 p.m. (ESPN2).
A tournament-level test
Wake Forest enters the game at 2-0 with wins over Coppin State (by 15 points) and North Carolina A&T (by 16 points) at home. The Demon Deacons were ranked third in the preseason ACC poll, behind just Duke and North Carolina, and received one vote for first place.
“I’m really excited,” said Michigan wing Sam Walters, a transfer from Alabama. “They got some really good players. My former teammate (Davin Cosby) plays for them as well, so I’m really excited to play against guys I know and a really good team. I think it’s going to be a good test for us, especially early in the season to play a good team in their home state.”
The Demon Deacons are led by senior guard Hunter Sallis, a preseason All-ACC first-team selection after he averaged 18 points as a junior last year. Sallis, who played two seasons at Gonzaga before transferring across the country, is a big-bodied guard who thrives attacking downhill while shooting 39.2% from 3-point range for his career.
“His athleticism, his size and then his ability to get into the pain, stop, shot fake and then obviously make,” Michigan assistant coach and general manager Kyle Church said. “Combine that with the ability to make 3s. I think he’s becoming a better playmaker for others as well. He’ll be one of the better guards we play all year.”
Hitting the road
This is Michigan’s first regular-season game outside of Crisler Center this season, though the Wolverines won an exhibition game against Oakland last month at LCA in Detroit. Michigan scheduled the neutral-site game to help provide a boost to its NET rankings and get a taste of playing at an NCAA tournament venue — Greensboro hosted first- and second-round men’s games in the 2023 tournament, though it’s not on the schedule for the next three men’s tournaments.
“It’s still a different feel,” Church said. “It’s not like being on campus and having the students, so it’s something we want to work in for those reasons.”
Michigan still expects a large Wake Forest presence cheering against them. It will help prepare them for the Big Ten teams they will face on the road, starting with a visit to Wisconsin in early December.
“I think it will be a great atmosphere,” said Will Tschetter, one of U-M’s few returning players. “It’ll be great for our team to have our first road game played in front of an opposing crowd. Looking forward to it.”
Focus on cleaning up rebounding and limiting turnovers
Even though Michigan hasn’t had to face much adversity through the exhibitions and opener, they still want to see improvements in a few key areas of the floor, namely in keeping possession and not surrendering second-chance opportunities. Monday against Cleveland State, the Wolverines had 16 turnovers and were just plus-one in rebounding because of the Vikings’ 20 offensive rebounds.
“Obviously, the glaring weakness would be the defensive rebounding,” Church said. “That’s something that’s been addressed heavily this week.”
The team didn’t break out any new rebounding drills, Walters said.
“I wouldn’t say we did anything specifically, but there was a big emphasis when we are playing like in our drills and our live stuff to make sure we are boxing out, finding our guy,” Walters said. “And even in our film breakdowns, that was a main point of focus.”
The other main area of focus is limiting giveaways. Michigan’s 16 turnovers only led to eight Cleveland State points, but it limited the amount of shots Michigan could take.
“It is a possessions game,” Tschetter said. “Being able to have as many possessions as possible is critical. So that’s kind of our main focus right now in our area of improvement.”
Next up: Demon Deacons
Matchup: Michigan (1-0) vs. Wake Forest (2-0), Deacon-Wolverine Challenge.
Tipoff: 1 p.m. Sunday; First Horizon Coliseum, Greensboro, North Carolina.
TV/radio: ESPN2; WWJ-AM (950).
Jared Ramsey is a sports reporter for the Detroit Free Press. Follow Jared on X @jared_ramsey22, and email him at jramsey@freepress.com.
