ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A day after many of the big names in college basketball tipped off their 2023-24 seasons, Michigan basketball got its turn to take the hardwood — and it hoped that Tuesday night’s matchup would go better than Monday night did for a certain rival to the West.
The Wolverines got out to a hot start, leading UNC-Asheville by 15 points in the early going. By near the end of the first half, the maize and blue pushed that lead to 21. Some mistakes late allowed the Bulldogs to cut the lead to just 16.
The second half started with a bang as Dug McDaniel hit a 3 and a steal by Nimari Burnett led to a breakaway layup and an and-1. It didn’t take long for the lead to balloon to 27 points just past the under-16 media timeout, and the rout was on.
With Phil Martelli acting as interim head coach while Juwan Howard continues to recuperate from heart surgery, Michigan defeated UNC-Asheville, 99-74. Here are our five takeaways from the season opener.
The transfers made a big impact
The Knoxville News-Sentinel
The Wolverines needed to reload this offseason after losing Hunter Dickinson to the NCAA transfer portal and Jett Howard and Kobe Bufkin to the NBA. Michigan brought in Nimari Burnett, Olivier Nkamhoua, and Tray Jackson via the transfer portal, and we saw some big impact from those players.
We’ll speak on Nkamhoua in a moment with more specificity, but he led the team with 25 points and was all-around electric. Burnett had a good outing in his first go with the Wolverines and Jackson provided a spark off the bench.
The trio’s impact looks like it quite possibly could make up for the personnel losses in the offseason. It’s early, but it’s an excellent start.
Diverse rotation
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Last year, Michigan basketball really struggled in terms of having a diverse set of scorers, but on Tuesday, that didn’t appear to be a problem for the maize and blue at the outset this year.
The transfers scored, the bench players scored — everyone got into the habit.
The big difference was that there was a big piece missing: center Hunter Dickinson, who transferred to Kansas this offseason. For the past several years, the offense ran through the big man, and when that wasn’t working, the offense got stuck in the mud. This game, it was back to a ‘pick-your-poison’ scenario, and it appeared as if just about anyone was available to answer the bell when called upon.
Michigan had four players in double digits, nine scorers, and 13 players get into the game.
Wolverines showing defensive improvement
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One of the pitfalls of last season’s NIT team was that it was often a defensive liability. Outside of Hunter Dickinson (who perhaps took a step back from his previous production), last year’s team felt uneven when it came to defensive production. However, this unit looked much more active — with its hands, getting into lanes, and making shots overall more difficult for the Bulldogs. There were some lapses (the biggest issue appears an inability to get back on defense when the other team moves fast), but overall, a much better effort to start the year.
Sometimes there were some borderline calls as a result of the new aggressiveness, but overall, this was a much better output by the Wolverines. Speaking of fouls. . .
The refs called everything
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To some degree, the season opener was a tough watch. No, not because the offense or defense was struggling, but because the refs appeared to call every ticky-tack foul — and not just on the maize and blue.
Both halves opened up with each team finding themselves nearly in the bonus before the under-16 media timeout and while some calls were obvious, many were very conspicuous.
Perhaps it’s not a salient takeaway, but the one good thing is that the Wolverines did a solid job at hitting free throws — not always a given for a Michigan basketball team.
Three standouts
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While there were several who really impressed in the season opener, there were three Wolverines who stood above the rest.
First among them was sophomore point guard Dug McDaniel looked much more comfortable running the show given his experience. He was deft at dishing the ball to other players but also showed increased aggressiveness driving to the basket and hitting deep shots. He had 22 points and 8 assists.
Transfer forward Olivier Nkamhoua’s game appeared to be impactful at every level. His intermediate game was on point, and near the basket, he was dangerous. Nkamhoua had several spectacular dunks and while it took him awhile to get going from 3, he showed an impressive stroke. He led the team with 25 points as well as 7 rebounds.
Perhaps the most surprising was senior Terrance Williams, who really stepped forward after a step-back year. Unlike last season, the D.C. native found his stroke early, hitting a couple of big 3s to help the maize and blue pull away early. Williams was particularly impressive defensively in his first outing of the year. He finished with 15 points and went 3-for-5 from 3.