For the first time this season, we got to witness the Michigan Wolverines men’s basketball team play in a live game setting. The Wolverines defeated the Oakland Golden Grizzlies, 92-48, in a charity exhibition game that benefitted Forgotten Harvest.
This game won’t count towards Michigan’s official record, but it was interesting to see this group full of new faces in action for the first time. The vision new head coach Dusty May has for this team is clear, as this team plays fast, has size and can shoot the lights out.
Here are some thoughts from Michigan’s first exhibition game of the season.
Man, this team has shooters (and great ball movement)
The guys off the bench came in and made an instant impact, with Nimari Burnett and Sam Walters combining to make their first three attempts from deep. All those attempts were set up by excellent ball movement.
A pull-up three from LJ Cason extended Michigan’s lead to 24-12 early, and the Wolverines never really looked back from there. Michigan had an 8-12 point lead for most of the half until it started to pull away thanks to solid shooting.
Michigan shot the lights out in the first half, making 60 percent of its shots (18-of-30) and 53 percent (!) of its threes (8-of-15). Most of those shots were created by great ball movement.
We saw it in practice earlier this week, but this team really moves the ball well, and they have the shooters to take advantage of open opportunities.
The sheer size of this team is absurd
It sounds simple, but one of the first things you notice when seeing this team in person is how big they are. Against a Horizon League team whose forwards ranged from 6-foot-7 to 6-foot-9, the two 7-footers in Danny Wolf and Vlag Goldin were able to grab a ton of rebounds, with Goldin almost always being a lob threat.
It’s not just the big men either. Aside from Tre Donaldson and Cason, every player in the playing rotation is taller than the average player at their position, crowding passing lanes and getting off shots with high release points.
Gayle might be this team’s best driver (and leading scorer?)
In a lineup that moves the ball well and has shooting coming out of its ears, Roddy Gayle Jr. stands out as a ball handler who takes advantage of all that movement. He was diving to the rim and, oftentimes, finishing in traffic against OU.
Gayle finished with 13 points, including a team-high 11 points in the first half, and he could have had more if he didn’t sit the majority of the second half. His slashing style works perfectly on a team full of shooters.
He seems like the heavy favorite to lead this team in scoring on the average night.
A first glimpse at Michigan’s rotation
May said at the local Media Day that Michigan is going to roll with a nine-man rotation, and we saw the first glimpse of that in this game.
The starting lineup was Donaldson, Rubin Jones, Gayle, Wolf and Goldin, with Burnett, Will Tschetter, Walters and Cason being the first guys off the bench, in that order.
It makes sense at a glance — you got length all over the place, and eight of those nine guys can knock down a three-pointer. You also have a good mix of speed and size, with an emphasis on guys that can run the pick-and-roll.
Some bonus takeaways and general notes
-Walters was one of the guys that stuck out the most. He’s 2-4 inches taller than all the guys that guarded him, he moved the ball well, he was solid on help-side defense and, most importantly, he’s got a strap. He knocks down threes with ease and may have the best looking jumper on the team. Don’t be surprised if he leads Michigan in scoring a few nights.
-Donaldson, Michigan’s starting point guard, zooms down the floor and was the beneficiary of more than a few transition buckets. Michigan likes to get the ball up the floor, so expect more of that.
-This is exactly the role Tschetter was supposed to be in. Coming off the bench in less minutes than a normal game last year, his motor was constant. He’s also noticeably quicker, shot well from three and from mid-range, and finished well around the rim. He finished with a team-high 15 points, playing really well next to Wolf and benefitted from Wolf’s playmaking. He has been over his head as a starter in the past, but this truly feels like the perfect role for him.
-When it comes to strictly getting his own shot, Cason was one of the best players on the floor. He ran the backup point guard when Donaldson was off the floor, and is going to play big minutes with his scoring ability.
-The loudest the place got was probably on the dunk by Phat Phat Brooks with about two minutes left. He got minutes in garbage time of this one.
-The only scholarship players not available for Sunday’s scrimmage were freshman guard Justin Pippen and grad-student guard Jace Howard. While May said Pippen “looked like a seasoned vet” in the first few weeks of practice and “he’s a sixth senior with a medical redshirt as far as his pace and way he plays,” he’s recovering from an undisclosed medical procedure. Pippen and Howard were on exercise bikes for the majority of the practice at the team’s Pro Day on Friday.
