The University of Michigan was founded in 1817 in the Territory of Michigan as the Catholepistemiad (roughly translated ‘school of universal knowledge’). In an 1821 enactment the university was created as a “body politic and corporate” modeled after the Imperial University of France. It wasn’t until Michigan became a state in 1837 that the corporation focused solely on higher education.
Today Michigan has 3177 midsize city acres, enrollment of 52,065 (33,7300 undergrad), $19.2 Billion endowment, USN&WR No. 21 national university, WSJ No. 22
Famous alumni include 9 Nobel laureates,145 Guggenheim Fellows, 35 Pulitzer Prize winners, US President Gerald R Ford, actors James Earl Jones, David Alan Grier, Lucy Liu, Gilda Radmer, all-UM crew for Gemini IV flew in 1965, Apollo15 all-UM crew in 1971, creator of Apple iPod Tony Fadell, Adobe Photoshop founder Thomas Knoll, Dominos Pizza cofounder Tom Monaghan, GM cofounder Frederic Latta Smith, Google cofounder Larry Page, co-creator of Polaris & Poseidon missiles Robert Fuhrman, Lockheed Skunk Works founder Kelly Johnson, WWII Medal of Honor recipient George Cannon USMC killed during first bombardment of Midway, WWII MoH recipient Francis Flaherty USN killed in attack on Pearl Harbor, 1st woman to race in the Indy 500, Int’l Motosports HOF inductee Janet Guthrie, Moses Fleetwood Walker 1st African-American to play MLB in 1884, MLB HOF Brooklyn Dodgers President and GM Branch Rickey, who signed Jackie Robinson and integrated MLB, MLB HOFers Barry Larkin, Derek Jeter, NFL head coach George Allen, 23-time gold medal swimmer Michael Phelps, HOF and LA Ram great Elroy ‘Crazy Legs’ Hirsch, Heisman winners Charles Woodson, Desmond Howard, Tom Harmon, QB and head coach Jim Harbaugh, one-handed MLB pitcher Jim Abbott, fmr Dodger pitchers Steve Howe, Geoff Zahn, Rich Hill, infamous Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, Euthanasia doctor Jack Kevorkian, US national team doctor Larry Nassar who sexually assaulted ~250 people
Michigan Athletics: 58 NCAA team championships (Swimming 12, Ice hockey 9, men’s gymnastics 6); 330 NCAA individual titles; 419 Big Ten Championships, 185 Olympic medals– 88 Gold medals (47 swimming,18 T&F, 6 diving), 52 Silver, 23 Bronze
Colors – Maize & Blue, nickname Wolverines, mascot – a rare school w/ no live or costumed mascot since the late 1920’s when Biff the Wolverine was the mascot (the first Biff was a stuffed wolverine, next was a live wolverine who grew too ferocious to be taken to games, thus ending his career), Fight Song ‘the Victors’ written in 1898, first played in public by John Philip Sousa’s band in 1899 in Ann Arbor
Basketball started 1908 (1,713-1,117, .605), 1989 national title, 6x NCAA runners up, 8 Final Four (last 2018), 15 Elite Eight, 18 Sweet Sixteen, 31 NCAA appearances, 3 Conf tourney titles, 15 Conf regular season titles. 15 AP All- Americans, 1966 National POY Cazzie Russell, 2013 POY Trey Burke, 6 National COY: Dave Stack Johnny Orr x2, Bill Frieder, John Beilein, Juwan Howard. Retired jersey Cazzie Russell No. 33, Honored jerseys No. 22 Bill Buntin, No. 35 Phil Hubbard, No 41 Glen Rice, No. 45 Rudy Tomjanovich. Naismith HOF Rudy Tomjanovich, Chris Webber. 30 1st rd NBA draft picks, 10 current NBA players
Winningest coaches: John Beilein 278-150, .650, Johnny Orr 209-113, .649, Bill Frieder 191-87, .687, Steve Fisher 184-82, .692
Current Dusty May – 1st season, 10-3 (2-0). Fun fact: Dusty May was video coordinator at SC in 2001 for the Elite Eight team coached by Henry Bibby that featured Clancy, Scalabrine, Granville, Bluthenthal, Trepagnier, Farmer.
Currently: 10-3 (2-0) - W: Cleveland St, TCU, Miami (OH), Tarleton St, Va Tech, #22 Xavier, #11 Wisconsin, Iowa, Purdue Ft Wayne, WKU; L: Wake Forest, Arkansas, Oklahoma
All-time: USC leads 1-0, 1.000 (in 1981, SC under Stan Morrison defeated UM under Bill Frieder 77-63)
Michigan NET 16, KenPom 11, SC NET 93, KenPom 82
Michigan Scores: 84.0 ppg (+17.4), 51.2% FG, 36.2% 3FG, 9.3 3’s/g, 71.2% FT. Rebounds 39.8 pg (+8.7), Assists 17.5 pg, TOs 15.2 pg (-1.2), Steals 6.5 pg, Blks 4.7 pg
Michigan Leaders:
Scoring: Vladislav Goldin 13.9 ppg (68.3% FG, 75% 3FG, 66.7% FT), Tre Donaldson 12.3 ppg (46.6% FG, 41.2% 3FG, 67.4% FT), Roddy Gayle 12.4 ppg (50.4% FG, 30.8% 3FG, 75.6% FT), Danny Wolf 11.8 ppg (57% FG, 32.4% 3FG, 65.6% FT), Nimari Burnett 9.6 ppg (51.8% FG, 44.6% 3FG, 75% FT)
Rebounding: Wolf 10.2 rpg, Goldin 5.9; Assists - Donaldson 3.8 apg, Wolf 3.5; Steals – Gayle 1.2 stp, Wolf 1.1, Blks – Goldin 1.9, Wolf 1.4
SC scores: 76.4 ppg (+8.0), 47.8% FG, 34.3% 3FG, 6.3 3’s/g, 76.3% FT, Rebs 32.1 rpg (-0.1), Assists 15.8 apg, TOs 11.6 pg (+2.3), 16.4 ppg/TO, Steals 6.9, Blks 3.4
SC Leaders
Scoring: Claude 14.5 ppg (52.1% FG, 35% 3FG, 75% FT), Agbo 13.1 (40.7% FG, 39.5% 3FG, 91.3% FT), T-Will 10.6 (51.1% FG, 36.0% 3FG, 81% FT), Cohen 10.2 (67.1% FG, 20% 3FG, 78.9% FT), Saint 9.6 (42.6% FG, 31.6% 3FG, 65.2% FT), Yates 8.3 (41.4% FG, 31.6% 3FG, 87.5% FT)
Rebounds: Saint 5.9, T-Will 4.6, Agbo 4.2; Assists Saint 4.5, Claude 3.9; Steals Saint 1.5, Yates 1.2; Blks Knowling 0.7
Pregame
I was looking for 3 things from this game, whether SC could hang with a B1G power program, whether our fans would represent, and whether Muss would make his first Founder’s appearance. That was quickly answered when young Michael Muss made his third appearance. Do we need to have a celebrity in the room for Muss to show up for his photo op? You would think our coach would like to pitch some of the donors gathered for each game – right?
In his scout of UM, Mike Muss says they are unique in playing two 7-footers at the same time and running a lot of pick-n-roll with them. They are a great shooting team who stand 3rd in eFG% in the country. Their bigs, Russian Vladislav Goldin and Yale transfer Danny Wolf (teammates with Matt Knowling) are the top 2 scorers and rebounders for UM. They have smaller players on the perimeter who can facilitate and make shots. This will be a challenge for SC, who’s tallest starter is Josh Cohen at 6’10” with limited athleticism. T-Will would love to be facing his former team he captained prior to transferring to SC but he is still out with a surgically repaired wrist with no timetable for return. Matt Knowling is also out indefinitely with a leg injury.
Entering the arena, early on it looks like a UM home game with the students still on break and many good seats occupied by the visitors. The announced 7075 crowd was, if I’m being generous, equally split. Matt Leinart was here after taking pictures with fans in the HOF lobby, many from UM who I guess don’t remember Matt ending their Rose Bowl in 2004. Matt Barkley is also here, along with Desmon Farmer, Lakers GM Rob Pelinka, Hawks Asst GM Kyle Korver.
The Game
Starters for SC – Saint, Cohen, Claude, Yates, Agbo. The tip is won by a smirking Goldin, who sees he is jumping center against 6’7” Buzo Agbo. UM immediately torches the nets hitting their first 5 shots, all 3-ptrs to grab a 15-6 lead at 16:01. SC didn’t panic and closed to 17-16 on a layup by Saint at 11:16. Kevin Patton Jr entered the game and put SC up 20-19 with a 3FG at 9:35. There were 9 ties in the half with UM’s biggest lead being 9 pts and SC’s 2 pts with 1:42 when Agbo finally hit a shot to make it 38-36. Two SC turnovers led to UM scores and the Wolverines took a 42-38 lead into the locker room. Agbo didn’t have it today. He came in averaging 91.3% FT and when fouled on a three, proceeded to go 1-3 from the line. Cohen usually makes a few ugly but effective shots around the basket that you marvel went in, but today he had 2 shots in close that didn’t even draw iron, scored just 3 pts in 20 min and was a team worst -23, when in the game. Together with our other big Agee who played only 6 scoreless minutes with 2 TOs, it is amazing that SC had a 14-6 advantage in the paint in the first half.
For the half:
UM shot 48.2% FG (13-27), 62.5% 3FG (10-16), 100% FT (6-6)
SC shot 53.6% FG (15-28), 16.7% 3FG (1-6), 63.6% FT (7-11)
Second Half
Claude scores first in the 2nd half at 19:02 to close the lead to 42-40. However, UM runs off 13 straight pts to make it 55-40 on a Goldin fastbreak dunk at 16:03 for UM’s biggest lead of the game. You can always rely on SC scraping and fighting and giving maximum effort and they cut into the UM lead and then took their only lead of the 2nd half 65-63 on a Patton layup at 7:33. UM responded but SC had a chance to pull off an upset until Claude fouled out at 3:12 with UM up 73-71. SC lost it’s go-to player and didn’t recover, losing 85-74 to the Wolverines.
After hitting 10 3FGs in the first half, SC held UM to 0-8 3FG in the 2nd half, but UM began dominating in the paint with a 32-12 advantage. UM had 5 players in double digits scoring led by Wolf’s game high 21. For SC Claude and Yates had 19 pts, Patton scored 14 off the bench and Saint had 10. Surprisingly UM with its twin towers only outrebounded SC by 1, 33-32.
SC was in this game, much like the Oregon game, until they failed to execute down the stretch and took the loss.
For the game:
UM shot 52.7% FG (29-55), 41.7% 3FG (10-24), 81% FT (17-21)
SC shot 43.5% FG (27-62), 33.3% 3FG (6-18), 63.6% FT (14-22)
SC falls to 9-5 (1-2) and Michigan goes to 11-3 (3-0)
Next Up: At Indiana (Bloomington, IN) Jan 8th 4 pm PST, B1G Network
Fight On! Beat the Hoosiers!
Today Michigan has 3177 midsize city acres, enrollment of 52,065 (33,7300 undergrad), $19.2 Billion endowment, USN&WR No. 21 national university, WSJ No. 22
Famous alumni include 9 Nobel laureates,145 Guggenheim Fellows, 35 Pulitzer Prize winners, US President Gerald R Ford, actors James Earl Jones, David Alan Grier, Lucy Liu, Gilda Radmer, all-UM crew for Gemini IV flew in 1965, Apollo15 all-UM crew in 1971, creator of Apple iPod Tony Fadell, Adobe Photoshop founder Thomas Knoll, Dominos Pizza cofounder Tom Monaghan, GM cofounder Frederic Latta Smith, Google cofounder Larry Page, co-creator of Polaris & Poseidon missiles Robert Fuhrman, Lockheed Skunk Works founder Kelly Johnson, WWII Medal of Honor recipient George Cannon USMC killed during first bombardment of Midway, WWII MoH recipient Francis Flaherty USN killed in attack on Pearl Harbor, 1st woman to race in the Indy 500, Int’l Motosports HOF inductee Janet Guthrie, Moses Fleetwood Walker 1st African-American to play MLB in 1884, MLB HOF Brooklyn Dodgers President and GM Branch Rickey, who signed Jackie Robinson and integrated MLB, MLB HOFers Barry Larkin, Derek Jeter, NFL head coach George Allen, 23-time gold medal swimmer Michael Phelps, HOF and LA Ram great Elroy ‘Crazy Legs’ Hirsch, Heisman winners Charles Woodson, Desmond Howard, Tom Harmon, QB and head coach Jim Harbaugh, one-handed MLB pitcher Jim Abbott, fmr Dodger pitchers Steve Howe, Geoff Zahn, Rich Hill, infamous Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, Euthanasia doctor Jack Kevorkian, US national team doctor Larry Nassar who sexually assaulted ~250 people
Michigan Athletics: 58 NCAA team championships (Swimming 12, Ice hockey 9, men’s gymnastics 6); 330 NCAA individual titles; 419 Big Ten Championships, 185 Olympic medals– 88 Gold medals (47 swimming,18 T&F, 6 diving), 52 Silver, 23 Bronze
Colors – Maize & Blue, nickname Wolverines, mascot – a rare school w/ no live or costumed mascot since the late 1920’s when Biff the Wolverine was the mascot (the first Biff was a stuffed wolverine, next was a live wolverine who grew too ferocious to be taken to games, thus ending his career), Fight Song ‘the Victors’ written in 1898, first played in public by John Philip Sousa’s band in 1899 in Ann Arbor
Basketball started 1908 (1,713-1,117, .605), 1989 national title, 6x NCAA runners up, 8 Final Four (last 2018), 15 Elite Eight, 18 Sweet Sixteen, 31 NCAA appearances, 3 Conf tourney titles, 15 Conf regular season titles. 15 AP All- Americans, 1966 National POY Cazzie Russell, 2013 POY Trey Burke, 6 National COY: Dave Stack Johnny Orr x2, Bill Frieder, John Beilein, Juwan Howard. Retired jersey Cazzie Russell No. 33, Honored jerseys No. 22 Bill Buntin, No. 35 Phil Hubbard, No 41 Glen Rice, No. 45 Rudy Tomjanovich. Naismith HOF Rudy Tomjanovich, Chris Webber. 30 1st rd NBA draft picks, 10 current NBA players
Winningest coaches: John Beilein 278-150, .650, Johnny Orr 209-113, .649, Bill Frieder 191-87, .687, Steve Fisher 184-82, .692
Current Dusty May – 1st season, 10-3 (2-0). Fun fact: Dusty May was video coordinator at SC in 2001 for the Elite Eight team coached by Henry Bibby that featured Clancy, Scalabrine, Granville, Bluthenthal, Trepagnier, Farmer.
Currently: 10-3 (2-0) - W: Cleveland St, TCU, Miami (OH), Tarleton St, Va Tech, #22 Xavier, #11 Wisconsin, Iowa, Purdue Ft Wayne, WKU; L: Wake Forest, Arkansas, Oklahoma
All-time: USC leads 1-0, 1.000 (in 1981, SC under Stan Morrison defeated UM under Bill Frieder 77-63)
Michigan NET 16, KenPom 11, SC NET 93, KenPom 82
Michigan Scores: 84.0 ppg (+17.4), 51.2% FG, 36.2% 3FG, 9.3 3’s/g, 71.2% FT. Rebounds 39.8 pg (+8.7), Assists 17.5 pg, TOs 15.2 pg (-1.2), Steals 6.5 pg, Blks 4.7 pg
Michigan Leaders:
Scoring: Vladislav Goldin 13.9 ppg (68.3% FG, 75% 3FG, 66.7% FT), Tre Donaldson 12.3 ppg (46.6% FG, 41.2% 3FG, 67.4% FT), Roddy Gayle 12.4 ppg (50.4% FG, 30.8% 3FG, 75.6% FT), Danny Wolf 11.8 ppg (57% FG, 32.4% 3FG, 65.6% FT), Nimari Burnett 9.6 ppg (51.8% FG, 44.6% 3FG, 75% FT)
Rebounding: Wolf 10.2 rpg, Goldin 5.9; Assists - Donaldson 3.8 apg, Wolf 3.5; Steals – Gayle 1.2 stp, Wolf 1.1, Blks – Goldin 1.9, Wolf 1.4
SC scores: 76.4 ppg (+8.0), 47.8% FG, 34.3% 3FG, 6.3 3’s/g, 76.3% FT, Rebs 32.1 rpg (-0.1), Assists 15.8 apg, TOs 11.6 pg (+2.3), 16.4 ppg/TO, Steals 6.9, Blks 3.4
SC Leaders
Scoring: Claude 14.5 ppg (52.1% FG, 35% 3FG, 75% FT), Agbo 13.1 (40.7% FG, 39.5% 3FG, 91.3% FT), T-Will 10.6 (51.1% FG, 36.0% 3FG, 81% FT), Cohen 10.2 (67.1% FG, 20% 3FG, 78.9% FT), Saint 9.6 (42.6% FG, 31.6% 3FG, 65.2% FT), Yates 8.3 (41.4% FG, 31.6% 3FG, 87.5% FT)
Rebounds: Saint 5.9, T-Will 4.6, Agbo 4.2; Assists Saint 4.5, Claude 3.9; Steals Saint 1.5, Yates 1.2; Blks Knowling 0.7
Pregame
I was looking for 3 things from this game, whether SC could hang with a B1G power program, whether our fans would represent, and whether Muss would make his first Founder’s appearance. That was quickly answered when young Michael Muss made his third appearance. Do we need to have a celebrity in the room for Muss to show up for his photo op? You would think our coach would like to pitch some of the donors gathered for each game – right?
In his scout of UM, Mike Muss says they are unique in playing two 7-footers at the same time and running a lot of pick-n-roll with them. They are a great shooting team who stand 3rd in eFG% in the country. Their bigs, Russian Vladislav Goldin and Yale transfer Danny Wolf (teammates with Matt Knowling) are the top 2 scorers and rebounders for UM. They have smaller players on the perimeter who can facilitate and make shots. This will be a challenge for SC, who’s tallest starter is Josh Cohen at 6’10” with limited athleticism. T-Will would love to be facing his former team he captained prior to transferring to SC but he is still out with a surgically repaired wrist with no timetable for return. Matt Knowling is also out indefinitely with a leg injury.
Entering the arena, early on it looks like a UM home game with the students still on break and many good seats occupied by the visitors. The announced 7075 crowd was, if I’m being generous, equally split. Matt Leinart was here after taking pictures with fans in the HOF lobby, many from UM who I guess don’t remember Matt ending their Rose Bowl in 2004. Matt Barkley is also here, along with Desmon Farmer, Lakers GM Rob Pelinka, Hawks Asst GM Kyle Korver.
The Game
Starters for SC – Saint, Cohen, Claude, Yates, Agbo. The tip is won by a smirking Goldin, who sees he is jumping center against 6’7” Buzo Agbo. UM immediately torches the nets hitting their first 5 shots, all 3-ptrs to grab a 15-6 lead at 16:01. SC didn’t panic and closed to 17-16 on a layup by Saint at 11:16. Kevin Patton Jr entered the game and put SC up 20-19 with a 3FG at 9:35. There were 9 ties in the half with UM’s biggest lead being 9 pts and SC’s 2 pts with 1:42 when Agbo finally hit a shot to make it 38-36. Two SC turnovers led to UM scores and the Wolverines took a 42-38 lead into the locker room. Agbo didn’t have it today. He came in averaging 91.3% FT and when fouled on a three, proceeded to go 1-3 from the line. Cohen usually makes a few ugly but effective shots around the basket that you marvel went in, but today he had 2 shots in close that didn’t even draw iron, scored just 3 pts in 20 min and was a team worst -23, when in the game. Together with our other big Agee who played only 6 scoreless minutes with 2 TOs, it is amazing that SC had a 14-6 advantage in the paint in the first half.
For the half:
UM shot 48.2% FG (13-27), 62.5% 3FG (10-16), 100% FT (6-6)
SC shot 53.6% FG (15-28), 16.7% 3FG (1-6), 63.6% FT (7-11)
Second Half
Claude scores first in the 2nd half at 19:02 to close the lead to 42-40. However, UM runs off 13 straight pts to make it 55-40 on a Goldin fastbreak dunk at 16:03 for UM’s biggest lead of the game. You can always rely on SC scraping and fighting and giving maximum effort and they cut into the UM lead and then took their only lead of the 2nd half 65-63 on a Patton layup at 7:33. UM responded but SC had a chance to pull off an upset until Claude fouled out at 3:12 with UM up 73-71. SC lost it’s go-to player and didn’t recover, losing 85-74 to the Wolverines.
After hitting 10 3FGs in the first half, SC held UM to 0-8 3FG in the 2nd half, but UM began dominating in the paint with a 32-12 advantage. UM had 5 players in double digits scoring led by Wolf’s game high 21. For SC Claude and Yates had 19 pts, Patton scored 14 off the bench and Saint had 10. Surprisingly UM with its twin towers only outrebounded SC by 1, 33-32.
SC was in this game, much like the Oregon game, until they failed to execute down the stretch and took the loss.
For the game:
UM shot 52.7% FG (29-55), 41.7% 3FG (10-24), 81% FT (17-21)
SC shot 43.5% FG (27-62), 33.3% 3FG (6-18), 63.6% FT (14-22)
SC falls to 9-5 (1-2) and Michigan goes to 11-3 (3-0)
Next Up: At Indiana (Bloomington, IN) Jan 8th 4 pm PST, B1G Network
Fight On! Beat the Hoosiers!
