Wolverines to Host Presbyterian in Pre-Holiday Tilt at Crisler Center

» With finals and the fall semester near completion, No. 14-ranked Michigan will host Presbyterian College in a pre-holiday break game at Crisler Center. This will be the first meeting between the Wolverines and Blue Hose.
» Michigan completed an 18-day stretch of seven games durign which the Wolverines played five road games, four top-10 teams, a home and away Big Ten game and won three straight to claim the 2019 Battle 4 Atlantis title.
» Over his last three games, Franz Wagner has averaged 14.3 points, with a career-best 21 against No. 10 Oregon.
» Isaiah Livers has made at least one three-pointer in every game this season and leads U-M with 29. He is shooting 50 percent this season from long range, which ranks ninth best in the nation.

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The No. 14-ranked University of Michigan men's basketball team will host Presbyterian College on Saturday (Dec. 21) at Crisler Center in its final game before the holiday break, Saturday. The game is scheduled for a noon tipoff on BTN with Matt Shepard (play-by-play) and Jess Settles (analyst) as the broadcast crew.

Who are the Presbyterian College Blue Hose?

• The Blue Hose are 2-9 after dropping their last three games against Jacksonville (81-58) and back-to-back road setbacks at St. Francis-Brooklyn (64-63) and South Carolina State (80-68). Presbyterian's lone victory over a Division I opponent was an 80-77 overtime win at VMI. The second win was an 87-59 win over Toccoa Falls.
• The nickname "Blue Hose" began in the early 1900s, when sportswriters referred to the Presbyterian College athletic teams as the "Blue Stockings" because of the blue socks they wore. Writers used the terms "stockings" and "hose" interchangeably over the years. They often shortened "stockings" to "hose" in newspaper headlines.
• Presbyterian uses a nine-man rotation and is averaging 62.7 points per game.
• Two players are scoring in double figures for Presbyterian, led by Cory Hightower's 12.3 points per game, and he adds 5.2 rebounds and 2.9 assists. Chris Martin adds 10.4 points, 5.3 rebounds and a team-best 3.8 assists. Ben Drake is just shy of averaging double figures at 9.9 points, but contributes a team-best 6.1 rebounds, per contest.
• Chris Martin leads the Big South Conference with 1.91 steals per game, which ranks 65th nationally. As a team, Presbyterian is averaging 6.6 steals per contest.
• Hightower was named to the Preseason All-Big South second team. The sophomore from Flint, Michigan, averaged 9.4 points and 6.3 rebounds per game as a freshman a season ago, earning Big South All-Freshman Team honors.
• Quinton Ferrell is in his first season as head coach at Presbyterian following five years as an assistant coach at College of Charleston. Ferrell played at Presbyterian and helped the Blue Hose to the NCAA Division II Tournament in 2005.

The All-Time Series with the Blue Hose

• Saturday's contest will be the first meeting between Michigan and Presbyterian.

Game Day Info

• Michigan completed an 18-day stretch of seven games during which the Wolverines played five road games, four top-10 teams, a home and away Big Ten game and won three straight to claim the 2019 Battle 4 Atlantis title.
• How strong was that stretch of games? U-M went from the 262nd-rated strength of schedule to the eighth best in the nation.
• Zavier Simpson has not missed a game in four seasons -- a streak of 127 straight. He has five-plus assists in 10 games, with 10-plus assists in four, including a career-best 14 against Houston Baptist.
• With 528 assists, Simpson has quickly moved into U-M's all-time top five and into fourth place on the list. He needs 11 to move into third all-time ahead of Antoine Joubert (539).
• Jon Teske has four-plus rebounds in every game and leads U-M with 24 blocks, almost half of U-M's season total of 55. The next closest Wolverine is Brandon Johns Jr. (nine).
• Isaiah Livers has posted at least one three-pointer in every game and leads U-M with 29.
• Brandon Johns Jr. scored 23 total points over his first eight games (2.7 ppg). In his last three? He has 22 (7.3 ppg). He mirrors that split with his rebounding. He grabbed 24 in his first seven games (3.4). In the next four? He has 26 (6.5 rpg). With seven games of four-plus rebounds he is second on U-M with 4.5 per game. In his last game against No. 10 Oregon, he grabbed a career-best nine.
• Over his last three games, Franz Wagner has averaged 14.3 points, with a career-best 21 against No. 10 Oregon. That figure more than doubles his average of 6.0 ppg in his first four games back after healing from a fractured right wrist.
• U-M's starting five -- Zavier Simpson, Eli Brooks, Franz Wagner, Isaiah Livers and Jon Teske has made up 73 percent of the scoring -- 622 of 855 points.

What a Stretch of Games

• After starting 4-0, the Maize and Blue started its key non-conference portion heading to the Bahamas for the Battle 4 Atlantis. After a hard-fought 83-76 win over Iowa State (Nov.27), the Wolverines posted back-to-back wins over No. 6 North Carolina (73-64; Nov. 28) and No. 8 Gonzaga (82-64; Nov. 29) to win the Thanksgiving tournament.
• With the three straight wins, U-M went from unranked to No. 4 spot in the Associates Press poll, tying the highest jump in the 70-year history of the AP rankings.
• After flying back Nov. 30, the Wolverines had a two-day prep before heading out to face No. 1 Louisville (Dec. 3) at the KFC Yum! Center in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. Michigan's seven-game win streak was snapped with a 58-43 loss to the top-ranked Cardinals.
• Returning to Crisler to start the an early two-game Big Ten set of games, the Wolverines picked up their eighth win following a 103-91 victory over Iowa (Dec. 6) before dropping a second road game with a 71-62 setback at Illinois (Dec. 11).
• Closing out the stretch was a battle with No. 10 Oregon (Dec. 14) at Crisler Center -- U-M's fourth top 10 opponent in the 18-day period. After falling behind by eight (31-23) in the first half, the Wolverines battled back to force overtime. Three attempts for the game-winning shot failed, U-M fell, 71-70, to the Ducks.
• The last time U-M lost back-to-back games was during the 2016-17 season -- at Michigan State (70-62; Jan. 29, 2017) and Ohio State (70-66; Feb. 4, 2017). It maps out to 105 total games.
• With an 8-3 record, the Wolverines still remain one of the nation's top teams ranked 14th in the AP poll and 15th in the Coaches poll.
• U-M finishes its non-conference schedule with two games over the final 15 days of the year -- Presbyterian College (Dec. 21) and UMass-Lowell (Dec. 29).