Michigan to Close 2017 by Hosting Jacksonville at Sold-Out Crisler Center

» U-M, which is a perfect 7-0 at home, has just one game remaining in the non-conference season and in 2017.
» Over his last five games, Zavier Simpson has come off the bench to average 8.4 points and has shot 60.7 percent from the field including 5-for-8 from deep.
» With Moritz Wagner being brought back slowly from a bone bruise on his right foot, Jon Teske has started the last two games. Wagner is listed as questionable for the Jacksonville game.
» Prior to break, U-M head coach John Beilein announced the official addition of walk-on Rico Ozuna-Harrison to the roster. A member of the scout team, he played the final three minutes against Alabama A&M for his first collegiate action.

THIS WEEK
Saturday, Dec. 30 -- Jacksonville, 6 p.m. (BTN) -- SOLD OUT

The University of Michigan men's basketball team (11-3, 1-1 B1G) has won four straight games and will close out 2017 and its non-conference slate by hosting Jacksonville (5-10) at a sold-out Crisler Center on Saturday (Dec. 30). Tipoff against the Dolphins is scheduled for 6 p.m. with the game broadcast on BTN.

A LITTLE ABOUT THE DOLPHINS

• Jacksonville comes to Ann Arbor with a 5-10 record. The Dolphins snapped a three-game losing streak with an 81-60 win over Middle Georgia State (Dec. 28). Jacksonville's game with U-M will be its second game in three-day span after the Dolphins flew out early Friday morning for Ann Arbor.
• Jace Hogan leads three players scoring in double figures for the Dolphins, averaging 17.6 points per game as well as 7.3 rebounds per game. J.D. Notae adds 15.7 points per contest, while Devin Harris is scoring 12.3 points per game and leading Jacksonville with 7.3 rebounds per contest.
• Jacksonville ranks second in the Atlantic Sun and 80th nationally in three-point field goal defense, holding opponents to just 32.2 percent shooting from behind the arc.
• Tony Jasick is in his fourth season as head coach at Jacksonville, having joined the Dolphins following three seasons as head coach at Fort Wayne. Jasick is a native of Whitehall, Michigan.
• Last season the Dolphins competed in the postseason for the first time since the 2010-11 season as they finished with a 17-16 overall record and participated in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament.

CLOSING OUT 2017, OPENING 2018

• After opening with 13 games in the first 36 days of the season, U-M concludes its non-conference schedule with its final two games over the final 14 days of 2017.
• With U-M's final exams coming to a close, the Wolverines hosted Alabama A&M and went on to a 97-47 victory with all 17 Wolverines seeing action.
• For the second straight season, U-M will start the New Year playing at Iowa. This year, the Wolverines head to Iowa City for a Tuesday, Jan. 2, game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Last season, the Hawkeyes used an 86-83 OT win to ring in 2017.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

• Michigan has won four straight games. The streak started with the comeback OT win over UCLA followed by wins at Texas and vs. Detroit Mercy in downtown Detroit at Little Caesars Arena. It was capped off by the 97-47 win over Alabama A&M.
• Jon Teske has started the last two games for Michigan with Moritz Wagner out with a bone bruise on his right foot. In Wagner's absence, Teske has averaged 11.0 points and 7.0 rebounds and has shot 56 percent from the field.
• Wagner is slowly coming back to practice and will be a game-time decision.
• In his last game, Charles Matthews became the first Wolverine to score 30-plus points in a game in nearly three years (two years, nine months) with a career-best 31 against Alabama A&M. He finished 12-for-15 from the field in just 26 minutes. Matthews is the first Wolverine to score 30 points in a game since Aubrey Dawkins had 31 against Rutgers (March 7, 2015).
• With a team-best 47 assists (3.4 apg), Muhammad-Al Abdur-Rahkman is second nationally with a 5.88 assist-to-turnover ratio. He has just eight total turnovers.
• Over his last five games, Zavier Simpson has been a spark off the bench, shooting 60.7 percent from the field (17-for-28) and 62.5 percent from deep (5-for-8). During the stretch he has averaged 8.4 points, 3.2 rebounds and 3.0 steals per game.

THE BASICS

• Michigan has three players averaging in double figures with Charles Matthews leading at 16.0 points per game while Moritz Wagner is just behind at 15.6. Duncan Robinson makes it three with his 10.3 per game average, while Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman is just behind at 9.9.
• Michigan's shot distribution has been pretty even between the Big Four as Matthews leads at 157 (11.2), with Wagner second with 133 (11.1), Abdur-Rahkman third at 126 (9.0) and Robinson fourth with 115 (8.2).
• U-M's Big Four has scored in double figures in 40 of 54 total chance. In fact, they have 40 of U-M's 50 total double-figure scoring games and all 10 20-plus point games.
• Overall U-M's Big Four have accounted for 64 percent of the U-M offensive production.
• Nearly 44 percent of U-M's offense comes via the long-range shot, and the Wolverines rank 19th nationally with 377 three-point field goal attempts. U-M has made eight or more three-pointers in 11 of 14 games. The Wolverines have posted eight games with 10-plus triples including a season-high 15 twice -- vs. Chaminade and Alabama A&M.
• Flipping it, U-M's opponents are averaging just 5.4 three-pointers per game. After a slow start in the first four games (32 3FG), U-M has buckled down, allowing five or fewer triples in nine of the next 10 games, including the last six -- Indiana (2), at Ohio State (5), UCLA (4), at Texas (5), vs. Detroit Mercy (5) and Alabama A&M (4).

• Scholar Story: Duncan Robinson
• Best of Kornacki: Stories of 24 Hours with the Wolverines