Michigan basketball slides in AP poll following loss to Arkansas
Michigan Wolverines basketball made its first AP poll appearance of the season last week, checking in at No. 14 amid a seven-game win streak, but it’s since fallen 10 spots to No. 24 in the Dec. 16 release. The Maize and Blue are No. 21 in the coaches poll.
Michigan fell to Arkansas in the Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden last Tuesday, 89-87, its second loss of the season. The other setback came to Wake Forest — also on a neutral floor — in a 72-70 game Nov. 10.
Michigan wasn’t ranked all of last season, and prior to last week the most recent time the Wolverines appeared in the AP poll was Nov. 14, 2022, when they started the 2022-23 campaign 2-0. The Wolverines hadn’t been ranked in the top 15 in the AP since checking in No. 4 in the Nov. 15, 2021 release.
First-year head coach Dusty May‘s group hasn’t beaten any teams currently inside the top 25 of the AP poll. But the Wolverines will have some opportunities to do so. Six future opponents are ranked: No. 10 Oregon (Feb. 5), No. 14 Oklahoma (Dec. 18), No. 16 Purdue (Nan. 24, Feb. 11), No. 18 UCLA (Jan. 7) and No. 20 Michigan State (Feb. 21, March 9).
Arkansas, meanwhile, isn’t ranked but did climb up to the team outside the top 25 receiving the second-most votes. The Razorbacks just outlasted Michigan, winning by two points in a thriller that had a few massive momentum swings. The Wolverines led by 15 in the first half, then trailed by 18 in the second but got it down to a one-point game late. They couldn’t finish the deal, with a shot to tie falling short at the buzzer.
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Michigan is headed to Charlotte, N.C. for the Jumpman Invitational, where it’ll take on undefeated Oklahoma Wednesday evening (9 p.m. ET, ESPN2). The Sooners are looking for a marquee victory, with none of their 10 wins coming against teams in the top 25 in the AP or the top 30 on Kenpom.
With more than a week in between games, May and Co. are working to improve two key areas: turnovers and defensive rebounding. The Wolverines rank 334th nationally with a 21.4-percent turnover rate and are allowing opponents to corral 32.6 percent of their own misses (278th).
“It gives us more time,” May said Friday. “It gives us a few days to spend on us. I think if you’re typically playing every three days, you get back at 5 a.m. and then you obviously can’t practice the next day. So, we would be preparing for a game probably tomorrow, and so you would shift all focus towards where now we’re focused on us, but also taking the lessons from last game and then start applying them to how it relates to Oklahoma.”
College basketball AP poll: Michigan ranked No. 24
1. Tennessee
2. Auburn
3. Iowa State
4. Kentucky
5. Duke
6. Alabama
7. Florida
8. Kansas
9. Marquette
10. Oregon
11. Connecticut
12. Texas A&M
13. Gonzaga
14. Oklahoma
15. Houston
16. Purdue
17. Ole Miss
18. UCLA
19. Cincinnati
20. Michigan State
21. Memphis
22. Dayton
23. San Diego State
24. Michigan
25. Clemson
