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In their final exhibition game of the season, No. 16 Michigann fell No. 10 Houston in Grand Rapids, 83-66.
The Battleground 2k26 at Van Andel Arena was a great test for the defending National Champions. Kelvin Sampson’s squad has won 30+ games the past five seasons. Houston is projected to be one of the best teams in the country yet again, led by All-Big 12 preseason selections Joseph Tugler and Dedan Thomas Jr. Tests like this are fantastic for preparing Michigan for a tough non-conference slate that starts in just over a week.
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Houston got off to a hot shooting start and dictated the pace of play for the first half. Michigan couldn’t get into much of a rhythm offensively while committing a lot of fouls.
Houston took a 13-point lead with 12:20 to play and the lead stayed there for a while. Michigan made a little push with back-to-back threes from Quinn Costello cutting the Houston lead to nine with 5:44 left, but Michigan couldn’t get enough consistent stops to climb back into this one.
Here are some takeaways from a loss that doesn’t affect Michigan’s record.
Three-pointers were the difference
The Cougars were hot from three, making five of their 10 attempts in the first half. Sampson’s team moved the ball well to create open shots; Michigan contested a good amount of them, but was a bit late on rotating to a few of the attempts.
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Michigan shot many more threes than Houston (33 attempts to 15), and Houston (47 percent) was more efficient than Michigan (27 percent) from deep. Houston won by double digits because of this, and turning the ball over (seven) less than Michigan (11) certainly helped the Cougars.
I would have liked to see Michigan settle for less threes and take it to the rim more, but Houston’s tight interior defense sort of forced U-M’s hands. I’d like to see more shots around the rim for the Wolverines when the regular season starts.
It’s good to have Roddy Gayle Jr. back
This was Roddy Gayle’s first game back with the Wolverines after he was…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/5-takeaways-michigan-exhibition-loss-192830132.html
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Publish date : 2026-10-25 19:28:00
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