Belleville’s Elijah Dotson gives speech after signing with Michigan
On national signing day, Belleville’s Elijah Dotson speaks to an excited crowd after signing with Michigan football.
The bright lights of Madison Square Garden were evidently blinding for Michigan basketball which tried to take a step forward, but instead tripped and stumbled down the rankings.
The Wolverines had won seven straight games before a tight 89-87 neutral site loss in Manhattan to Arkansas and hot shot head coach John Calipari, but that wasn’t enough to save them from plummeting seven spots to No. 21 in the latest USA TODAY Coaches Poll rankings.
It’s a jumble of Big Ten teams around that area: Oregon at No. 10 is tops in the league, followed by No. 17 Purdue, No. 18 UCLA, No. 19 Michigan State and U-M at No. 21.
MSU was off last week, but plays Oakland on Tuesday in Detroit at Little Caesars Arena.
Michigan led Arkansas by 15 points in the first half, only to get outscored by 33 points in the middle of the game and fall behind by 18, and then get within one bucket on multiple occasions in the final minute. The Wolverines remain elite at 2-point shooting (No. 6 in the nation, 61%) and 2-point shooting defense (No. 16 in the nation, 43.2%) but turn the ball over far too much (No. 334, 21.4% of possessions).
Michigan’s balance has been its strong suit with Vlad Goldin, Danny Wolf, Roddy Gayle and Tre Donaldson all averaging double figures and they’ll need to be good again this week, as the schedule gets no easier. The Wolverines will play away from home for their fifth time in six games against No. 15 Oklahoma (10-0) in the Jumpman Invitational in Charlotte on Wednesday (9 p.m., ESPN).
Tony Garcia is the Michigan Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
