Michigan vs. Oakland exhibition recap: New-look Wolverines look sharp in debut

The Michigan Wolverines blew out the Oakland Golden Grizzles by a score of 92-48 from Little Caesars Arena in Downtown Detroit in a charity exhibition game benefitting Forgotten Harvest.

It was the public’s first look at how the Wolverines might look this season under new head coach Dusty May, and the early returns were extremely positive against a program that made the NCAA Tournament last year. Despite all the new faces on the roster, chemistry and connectivity looked fairly advanced for a team that played its first competitive game under a new head coach.

Michigan started junior Tre Donaldson at point guard, graduate Rubin Jones at shooting guard, junior Roddy Gayle Jr. at small forward, junior Danny Wolf at power forward and graduate Vlad Goldin at center.

Will Tschetter led the Wolverines with 15 points. Gayle Jr. and Sam Walters had 13 and 12 points, respectively.

Below is the recap from the exhibition tilt from Downtown Detroit.

First Half

Oakland won the opening tip-off to get things started at LCA. At the first media timeout, Michigan held a 6-2 lead with a pair of buckets from center Vlad Goldin and another basket in the paint from Roddy Gayle Jr. Coming out of the first media timeout, point guard Tre Donaldson split a pair of free throws to extend the lead to 7-2, answered by a three-pointer from Oakland at the other end to narrow the score to 7-5 (15:21). Gayle got to the free throw line on a fast break and split a pair at the 14:57 mark, followed by a baseline jumper by Will Tschetter at 14:23 to extend the lead to 10-5. Woodrich hit a jumper for Oakland, answered by a three-pointer by U-M’s Sam Walters (13:41). Woodrich hit another at (13:11), which was answered at the other end by Nimari Burnett to put things at 16-10 in favor of Michigan with 12:50 to go in the half.

Malcolm Christie hit a pair of free throws for Oakland to bring the score to 16-12, followed by an 8-point scoring run for the Wolverines on a three-pointer from Walters, a layup from Tschetter and a triple from freshman guard LJ Cason to put the score at 24-12 with 11:07 to go. Oakland answered with a four-point run of its down which was stopped by a Goldin dunk at the other end to extend the U-M lead to 26-16 (9:34).

Oakland’s 4-0 run at the 8:09 mark narrowed the score to 26-20 before Michigan answered with another 8-0 mark of its own on a pair of threes from Wolf and Gayle, followed by a fastbreak layup from Donaldson at the 5:21 mark, pushing the lead to 34-20. The Wolverines would finish the half on a 22-6 run, headlined by a three-point make from Gayle at the buzzer to head into the locker room up 48-26.

Second Half

The half started with a 5-2 stretch for Michigan on a dunk from Rubin Jones, followed by a three at the 18-minute mark to go up 53-28. Oakland got four points back on a layup and a pair of free throws with 16:34 left on the clock, followed by a personal 4-point run from Tschetter to push the Michigan lead up to 57-22 (15:01). The two squads traded and-1 sequences at 14:38 and 14:08 to move the score to 60-35.

Oakland used a 5-0 run to pull to within 20 points at 60-40 with 11:21 to play, followed by Michigan’s most explosive scoring run of the night. The Wolverines scored 12 points in a row before the under-8 media timeout to push the lead to 72-40 before Oakland got a basket back at the 7:46 mark. U-M went on another 5-0 on a pair of free throws from Wolf and a three from Tschetter to go up 77-42 (6:19).

The two squads would trade baskets over the next few minutes, putting things at 82-48 in favor of the Wolverines before a 10-0 run the 2:54 mark to 1:21 and the final media timeout of the night before the walk-ons subbed into the game. The game would end with the Wolverines winning 92-48.

Michigan vs. Oakland final box score