Michigan vs #22 ranked Xavier 8:30pm est FS1. Line: Michigan -2

Xavier comes into this game undefeated and on a 6 game win streak. Notable wins include Wake Forest and South Carolina.

Xavier is border-line elite at taking care of the basketball. Their assist to turnover ratio is 2.052, ranking them #5 in the country for this metric. They have a total of only 58 turnovers through 6 games while forcing their opponents to 82 turnovers. The Musketeers assist on 71% of their made field goals, ranking them #4 in the nation in this category. This is an unselfish, disciplined basketball team we are going up against tonight. They had 5 players in double digits vs South Carolina and another player with 9pts. Where we have an advantage is depth. Xavier essentially has a 7-man rotation. They had 4 players log 30+ minutes vs South Carolina. No one on Michigan's roster averages more than 29min a game. We have 9 players averaging double digit minutes in addition to Pippen at 7.8min. Only Gayle and Donaldson have logged 30min games this season.

• Ryan Conwell is a problem. The 6ft 4in Junior guard is averaging 17.3 pts a game. Shoots it 48% from deep. He doesn't do much else on the floor besides score, but he's capable of single handedly winning a game. He has logo range.
• Zach Freemantle is their junkyard dog. The 6ft 9in Senior averages 15.7ppg and 7.5reb. His motor never shuts off. He's also a 40% three pt shooter, so we have to be aware of their pick and pop action as well as Zach trailing the break. He's not a volume 3pt shooter. Takes roughly 2 a game, but he can hit them.
• Dayvion McKnight runs the point. 6ft 190lbs. He's strong and he's consistent, however, IMO, he's who we can make miserable by throwing bodies at all game. There's a considerable drop off in the flow of Xavier's offense when McKnight is on the bench. In his last three games he's logged, 34min 30min and 34min.

We win this game if we win the turnover battle. Plain and simple. We have turned the ball over 97 times this season. That puts us ranked #347th out of 364 teams in Division one. Not Good. On the flip side, we have forced 101 turnovers, an average of 17 forced turnovers a game this season, which puts us ranked 17th in this category. Xavier's identity is taking care of the basketball. Something is going to give tonight.

If we aren't going to take advantage of the size mismatch on the block, I would scrap the 2 big lineup relatively early. Wolf is going to have his hands full defensively at the 4 and Xavier will feast on those one handed telegraphed passes.

If I had to predict how this game flows: It's tight throughout the first 30 minutes of the game. Our depth is the deciding factor down the stretch. Xavier runs out of gas. We win 82-77. Walters and Tre lead the way. We start the week 1-0 vs teams located in Ohio and never look back!

Here's highlights of Xavier vs our common Opponent Wake Forest:

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@Josh Henschke can you or someone on your team do a recap of the dollar value of Michigan's NIL program? My wife read something that said we had 200 million available. Is that correct?

Sitting here today listening to my osu business members and so sick of it - hope that we see a 1969 or 1993 upset on Saturday- the first game I listened to was that 1969 game and I loved Ufer from that day forward- 100 games at home and games at osu 12 times - the wins there were sweeter than any - We have a winning record on their field an it would be Great to add another- Go Blue Go Blue Go Blue -

Updates to come, show starts at 7. Sherrone Moore, Kirk Campbell and Wink Martindale tonight.

Apologies, yesterday was loaded so I forgot to run a Subscriber Chat! Would’ve gotten lost in the intel anyway.

Fire away with your questions and we’ll get back to you.

Looks like the NCAA amended our NOI, and the clock restarts for 90 days on this dashboard starting on 11/13

https://www.ncaa.org/sports/2022/11/29/division-i-infractions-dashboard.aspx

@Josh Henschke, @Anison or @Big Boutros any intel on if these amendments are good for us?

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I knew a few weeks ago it’s was coming

M&BR has the latest on Michigan’s pursuit of a 2025 player committed elsewhere.

We're back with another edition of our weekly subscriber chat.

Fire away with questions and we'll get back to you.

Bryson Williams is an Orchard Lake St. Mary's (MI) senior who is their best player and has led them to the Michigan second division state championship game at Ford Field Friday night. He scored two touchdowns over Birmingham Groves (Avery Gach and Barry Sanders son) including the overtime game winner where he carried multiple tacklers in from the 4. He's primarily a wide receiver but they line him up all over the backfield and he did his damage at wildcat Saturday.

A legit 6'2" 215 pounds a size 14 shoe and doesn't turn 17 till January!

He's a 4.0 student, a GREAT kid and comes from a phenomenal family.

He's a pretty high level club soccer player too in his football off season.

I coached him in soccer for a few years (I had to hand off that gig to people that knew the sport) and he and my son kept playing together for many more.

When my son got his first gaming computer (they were like 12) his instructions to me were "talk to Bryson he knows what the best components are, I want what he says". And I did (and he did).

He's heading to MSU.

He transferred from Canton High School his freshman year and had to sit out his sophomore year, as a result the rankings services seemed to have no idea who he was for a long time.

If the players we are getting are better than him, that's great for us. But I'm concerned this one will come back to bite us. His coach is Jermaine Gonzalez one of ours so I'm sure they know who he is.


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Four-star DE Damien Shanklin.

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Has been committed to the Tigers since July, but Michigan has continued to recruit and check in on him.

Mike Elston was starting to build a bond with Shanklin before he left. Then, Scruggs came in, who Shanklin had a prior relationship with when Scruggs was at Wisconsin, but then he was obviously let go before Esposito was hired.

Shanklin was set to make Michigan one of his official visits, but the revolving door of coaches kind of stagnated the momentum with the Wolverines at the time as he was building connections with the program.

However, the staff has kicked the tires with Shanklin, who is a Midwest kid who has been pretty high on Michigan.

Obviously, the staff is swinging for the fences on the recruiting trail right now, especially with the DL group in going after guys like Hilson, Stewart and Gibson.

Not saying a flip is imminent here, but have indication that Shanklin is open to listening to Michigan.

Just something to watch if things start to develop further.

I was in the stadium, quiet…concerns…then a shift, nothing mattered…no outside noise…all that mattered was the mission…

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Did he play his senior season?

Once a football team has had its identity shaken its often not an immediate recovery.

Suddenly talent takes a relevance backseat to a crisis of confidence/identity.

We saw this in 1998 and 2007 after great seasons were followed with horrific starts. Both seasons the team was still performing in a ho-hum manner will into October. Heck we even saw it in 2003 with Oregon and Iowa punches to the gut and required a miracle comeback against a bad minnesota team before the train was back on the track.

In each of those cases the extended period of playing below talent due to identity/confidence crisis came under the umbrella of the same staff as their previous reality.

This could take a minute and get worse before it gets better.

I suggest closing your eyes often and visualizing power right and power left in Pasadena and trusting that the guy Jim INSISTED on hiring is the right one.

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"Definitely had a good experience," Hilson told Rivals. "My first time being up here at Michigan...definitely can see myself in that defense."

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Subscribe to M&BR for more recruiting coverage.

About an hour to go until tipoff ALLEGEDLY. There could be a bit of a delay here because of a basket failure setting the tipoff of the previous game back 90 minutes. PLUS, Mercer just won in overtime. Will be curious to see if things get pushed back a bit.

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Michigan already added its prized recruit Bryce Underwood, but the Wolverines are swinging for the fences as signing day approaches.
Roundup of commits, targets, and possible flips.
🔗🔽

Would you take him for a year?

Wolverines move to 5-1 on the season with a win in the Ft. Myers Tip-off vs Hokies.

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