Game 1: Oakland at Michigan Preview

Michigan opens the Mike Boynton Jr. era tonight, just as last year’s magical run began: a home game with Oakland (6:00 p.m., BTN).

No more exhibitions, preseason prognostication, or speculation. The games count now, and we’ll learn a lot about this Michigan team—and its coach—as it embarks on a loaded November schedule.

Oakland’s preseason prep featured a 103-74 win over Grand Valley, an 89-75 loss to Tennessee State (in which stats apparently weren’t kept), and a 97-58 loss at Cincinnati last week.

The Golden Grizzlies check in at 188th in KenPom’s preseason rankings after finishing 168th last season. Greg Kampe’s teams generally toss themselves into the deep end with difficult (and profitable) non-conference games, then emerge as Horizon League contenders. This year’s team will travel to Michigan, Stanford, Alabama, Boise State, Arizona State, Purdue, Houston, Arkansas and Michigan State over the next two months.

Like so many low-major teams across the country, Kampe’s squad has had to rebuild almost its entire roster via the transfer portal. A couple of key rotational returners remain, but most of the roster was imported and is new to the system.