Michigan hosts La Salle on Sunday (4:00 p.m., Peacock/NBCSN) before heading home for Christmas. The Explorers are the worst team on Michigan’s schedule — 264th in KenPom and 4-8 on the season against the 215th toughest schedule — but have several connections to Ann Arbor.
First-year La Salle head coach Darris Nichols not only played for John Beilein at West Virginia, but also was an assistant coach alongside Dusty May during their time at Louisiana Tech and Florida under Mike White. In another fun fact, Nichols has actually coached as an assistant coach against Michigan twice in the NCAA Tournament over the last decade — at Wofford in 2014 and Florida in 2019.
Nichols had a solid four-year stretch at Radford, finishing 20-13 last season, before landing the La Salle job this offseason. The Explorers haven’t been to the NCAA Tournament since 2012-13, and there’s a lot of work to do to get them back to that point in the well-resourced Atlantic 10.
La Salle’s best win is at home over No. 244-ranked Monmouth, and it has only played one team ranked better than 99th on KenPom (Villanova, a 70-55 loss).
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