It’s important for sports teams to test themselves against fierce competition before a season starts. Intrasquad scrimmages are nothing like a real college basketball game.
The No. 16 Michigan Wolverines got as real of a college basketball game as possible on Sunday, facing preseason No. 10 Houston at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids. After a back-and-forth first half, Houston pulled away in the second half to win handily, 83-66. The Cougars executed well on both ends, while Michigan struggled to hit enough threes to climb back into the game.
“What a great opportunity for our team to play against what’s been one of the premier programs in the country for the better part of a decade,” Boynton said after the loss. “We also learned a lot about ourselves. We have a talented team right now. We play good basketball in spurts, which obviously wasn’t good enough against an elite team today.”
Houston has made it to the Sweet Sixteen in the past seven NCAA tournaments, including a Final Four appearance in 2021, an Elite Eight appearance in 2022 and a National Championship appearance in 2025. A mainstay at the top of the tournament since Kelvin Sampson got there in 2014, the Cougars play a physical brand of basketball that slows you down and wears you out. They are to college basketball what the Iowa Hawkeyes are to college football, if the Hawkeyes had much more postseason success.
Michigan prepared for that physicality, but good preparation doesn’t always lead to results. The Wolverines got out-rebounded for the second exhibition in a row and turned the ball over four more times than the Cougars. That’s not a recipe for success against a team that doesn’t make mistakes.
“It is Houston, and they pride themselves in (toughness and grit), so I feel like we did better, but it wasn’t good enough,” said Roddy Gayle Jr., who led Michigan with 14 points. “And I think that we will break down the film and learn from different areas that we feel like we need to be better at. And we will correct them.”
“We prepared as we should have. And we did good, but it wasn’t good enough to win the game,” center Moustapha Thiam added. “So we just got to go back and look what we need to work on and work on it every single day. The regular season starts soon, so we got to back to work.”
A key part of Houston pulling away was Elliot Cadeau and Trey McKenney being held scoreless until late in the second half when the game was already out of hand. When Maize N Brew asked him about the importance of having Gayle back as a shot creator when Cadeau and McKenney are struggling, Boynton said he was a welcome addition, but insisted the Wolverines need to stay persistent and work for a great shot instead of settling for a good one.
“Yeah, I think we just got to find ways to generate more good looks,” Boynton said. “I think we just have to be confident that we’ll generate the right kind of shots and continue to believe in that, as opposed to turning to what’s going to be a lesser, efficient shot somewhere else on the floor from somebody different.”
On the bright side, this loss does not count against Michigan’s record. And playing a team like Houston in late October prepares for Michigan for a bear of a non-conference slate that includes:
- No. 4 UConn
- A Marquette team that just beat No. 6 Michigan State in an exhibition
- A Villanova team that got six votes in the preseason poll
- Some tough teams in the Players Era Championship, including Creighton and either No. 14 Miami or a TCU team that nearly upset Michigan last season.
- No. 11 Louisville in Detroit
That’s a whole lot of teams expected to make the tournament, and a few expected to win more than a few games once they get there. But Michigan is up to the task, and Houston is a good litmus test to identify your weaknesses and figure out how you can improve in those areas.
“I think that for who we played today, the respect we have for our opponent, we wanted to test ourselves against somebody that was at that level,” Boynton said. “And again, that’s as close to a Big Ten high-level opponent, right? If they were in our league, they’d be picked at the very top, high up there. And so we know what the bar is as we head into the season.”
That season officially starts for Michigan next week, as the Wolverines will host Greg Kampe and Oakland on Monday (6 p.m. on Big Ten Network). Michigan hits the road shortly after that, heading to TD Garden in Boston to face UConn in a National Championship rematch on Friday, Nov. 6 (8 p.m. on TNT).