10/25/2026 8:54:00 PM | MGoBlue Podcasts
Brian Boesch • 00:00
Even though none of these games have counted, we have now seen Michigan men's basketball compete six times against a different opponent, three in Europe and three here this month in exhibition games and it's fair to wonder what have we really truly learned? What do we feel confident about with this club six games in with the real stuff about to start out in Europe? Mustafa Cham went down a few minutes into the first game, did not return. Trey McKenney missed a game. Brandon McCoy junior Was injured in the early stages of the last game and he will not play for Michigan this season due to injury. Then in the three game exhibition slate in October, no Roddy Gayle Jr. until Sunday, some injury buildup for the likes of Ricky Liburd and Jalen Reed and Oscar Goodman and then on Sunday against Houston, a ton of foul trouble with a ten man rotation. Injuries won't turn off come the regular season.
Brian Boesch • 00:49
You may still have fifty foul games, twenty five per side though. Please let that not happen. That was a bit of a slog on Sunday in Grand Rapids, but but it still feels like there is a lot to learn and the talent was enough to win a couple of home games over Eastern Michigan and Oregon State. That was not nearly enough to beat a team that seemingly always knows what it is in the Houston Cougars. They're steady. They've won thirty or more games in the last five years. The last time they didn't, they won twenty eight of a possible thirty two and went to the final four in the COVID shortened twenty twenty to twenty twenty one campaign. This was always going to be more of a build. Whether it was year three of Dusty May or now year one of Mike Boynton junior Was always going to be a if or if not mccoy was healthy. If or if not, Gayle was eligible. But the day after Dusty May's NBA departure, Mike Boynton Jr's message was simple.
Brian Boesch • 01:39
The post practice circle was largely the same. There was belief that this could be a championship caliber team. A couple of days prior, why wouldn't there be? Now the mystery of the season is about to begin. We'll see if this team is championship caliber, but even though we've had six examples of this team against other foes, the mystery is still a bit stronger than you'd expect at this point. Let's react to Michigan's loss in exhibition play to Houston with Coach Boynton, with Terry Mills and with Roddy Gayle junior, here on Defend the Block.
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Jeff Laurence • 02:12
We're talking Michigan Basketball. Welcome to Defend the Block where we'll take you inside the basketball programs with interviews analysis and so much more. Now here's your host, Brian Boesch.
Brian Boesch • 02:26
Disclaimer off the top I'm going to be a bit hypocritical here because I love how Coach Boynton and players who were on last year's team have talked about the importance of establishing this team's legacy. The biggest thing this team can do is what last year's team had so much success with and that was getting us to stop talking about Area fifty one with Danny and Vlad, the Big Ten tournament championship run, the Sweet sixteen team of twenty four twenty five. That was a really special season and it was obviously the catalyst for last year. The this year will not be the same. Michigan is not going to go thirty seven and three. There will be some growing pains almost certainly and part of that is because of the challenging schedule Michigan has created. But six games in and this includes the two exhibitions last year against Cincinnati and ST. John's Michigan six games in was four and oh in real games and they their fourth game was Middle Tennessee State beat beat em by twenty five and then Game seven.
Brian Boesch • 03:22
That was where what happened in Vegas most certainly did not stay in Vegas. Michigan announced its presence as the best team in the country at that point. This year's group is going to need more time and while it's great that guys have gotten experience, I have to imagine there's still a lot of desire for the coaching staff for the players to know how this is going to look against foes with various rotations, it's tough to see anything but a ten man rotation to start this season. It's also tough to see any chance there's a ten man rotation at the end of the year. And as alluded to, injuries don't turn off once the regular season starts. There will be foul games. There will be other challenges that Michigan will have to endure, but this team needs to figure out who on it is able to be big time or medium sized contributors in Big Ten games, in NCAA tournament games.
Brian Boesch • 04:18
And while Houston only returned one starter, this is a group that is very much still in the system. This is a Big twelve team that would acclimate incredibly well to the Big Ten with the style of play that they have with the coaching they have. It's why they went from the American to the Big twelve and barely batted an eye. And the Big twelve has had an argument as college basketball's best conference along with the likes of the Big Ten and the SEC for the last handful of years. We'll see what happens. But I say the comparison to last year Again, somewhat hypocritical to tell you that even six games in there were going to be some growing pains. And this year's team is not as proven. They're also not going to have some of the foul issues and they're not going to play as good a teams as they played on Sunday. Very often. Houston once again will compete for all of college basketball's biggest prizes.
Brian Boesch • 05:10
They will be excellent again this year. This was a great challenge, a great opportunity. The real opportunities begin on Monday when Michigan welcomes Oakland to Chrysler Center. That's November second. Until then, it'll be a very valuable week of practice. They'll have a very important few stretches of film sessions because there were a lot of opportunities for guys to play with a group of four others that they haven't experienced a ton that they haven't experienced, obviously against other opponents that you don't know what they're trying to do or their tendencies. You in an innate level as what you know about your teammates. So yeah, it's a bummer that Michigan lost the game as handily as they did. Houston kind of ran away with the thing and these guys are competitors. They were a little ticked off on Sunday afternoon in Grand Rapids, but if you are going to get a test, it's tough to draw up a better one that you could realistically get.
Brian Boesch • 06:07
You're not going to play an exhibition against Michigan State or Ohio State or anything like that. This is about as good as it gets. And they got a chance to go on the road and they got a chance to experience some failure. They lost a game and they really did not have much momentum in it outside of a fifteen one run in the late stages of the first half. So it's tough to really gauge where this team is right now. But the regular season has a way to force the issue a little bit. And Michigan's going to have to figure out how to refine the rotation, learn roles, figure out where Gayle settles in. Roddy Gayle is probably Michigan's best player on Sunday. He's a huge boost to this team and it's very, very fortunate that Michigan is with him on the roster. Hopefully that continues, but for now we'll see how this all goes because Michigan has some work to do and they also have a lot of talent.
Brian Boesch • 06:58
It's just a matter of figuring out how the pieces of the puzzle fit together. All right, those are some of my thoughts after the Wolverines exhibition finale loss to the Houston Cougars. And let's talk about it with the national champion, Terry Mills here He is with Rob, Joyce, Terry.
Rob Joyce • 07:12
This felt like a very Houston type of game. Michigan thirty four percent shooting, Cougars only eight turnovers, won the rebounding battle by twelve. Feels like Houston really from the get go outside of that Michigan run, just kind of controlled things.
Terry Mills • 07:24
Yeah, well, there's no secret about what this Houston's DNA was. They like to get up into you. They like to be physical. I thought Michigan met a lot of that physicality during the course of the game. I mean, they could have just waved the flag early in this game when they got down double digits. But I love the fight in the Wolverines that they got back in. They took the lead and it just seems like it was a game of big runs by both sides and you know, Houston just had that last big run and Michigan weren't able to overcome it.
Rob Joyce • 07:52
Michigan led today in scoring by Roddy Gayle junior fourteen points. But I know there's a lot to you and I are not lawyers. There's a lot to dig through that we're not qualified to do. But Roddy's out there and it's nice to see Roddy out there.
Terry Mills • 08:04
Yeah, I mean, I was excited see him out there. I mean this guy has a lot of patience because of what he was going through. You didn't know if he's going to play. Yeah, he's going to play. He's not going to play. He's in uniform today, not in uniform. So for him to even come out here and be ready to go when his name was called, that was big for him and I'm happy for that young man.
Rob Joyce • 08:26
What do you hope that they take away from this where Houston, obviously, they're always their perennial power. They're ranked, I think preseason, their preseason top fifteen, ten, eleven, twelve, somewhere in there. And obviously they have that identity of, you know, what a Kelvin Sampson coach team is going to do. As you mentioned, what's your takeaway from Michigan here as they drive back?
Terry Mills • 08:43
Well, just the fact that you got to pay attention to detail. I mean, we got some, some players that returned from last year, but you have a lot of other players that really haven't been through this like some of the other Wolverines. But you have to pay attention to detail of what the scouting report is. You know that this is going to be a physical ball game. So you got to put on your hard hat. I thought Michigan did a good job. Number one is overcoming some of those fouls. Those whistles weren't going their way and most teams will fold under pressure like that. But Michigan showed me A lot by fighting back, fighting through those fouls, gaining the lead again. So I think it's a lot to be learned from this. But for some of the younger guys who haven't had that type of experience is that you got to pay attention to detail and you got to be ready to go from the tip.
Rob Joyce • 09:31
Real thing comes now, eight days from now, we'll see Oakland and Greg Kampe and company excited for the real thing after we've seen a couple of exhibitions now.
Terry Mills • 09:39
Yeah, I don't know how long these extended exhibition games are going to go on. We might have five next year for all I know. But I think that these kids are really anxious to get that regular season going just like anyone else. You know, tip your cap to Houston. They had just as long as a bus ride as they had an airplane ride. But hey, they showed up, they were physical, and hey, they won the ball game. So if you're Michigan, hey, it's just time to get back to the drawing table, clean up on a few things. And one thing, I'm not worried about this team because they got great leaders on this team. And I talked about it during the broadcast. Trey McKenney, two of eleven shooting, trust me, when that ball, when that bus gets back to Ann Arbor, he's going right to the gym. So he's one guy that I won't worry about. And I think the rest of the players will follow his lead.
Rob Joyce • 10:28
For any NCAA officials listening, Terry was joking about five exhibitions. He wasn't serious. Terry, we'll talk to you next week.
Terry Mills • 10:36
Thank you.
Brian Boesch • 10:37
Two conversations to share with you after the ball game. First, here's the head coach, Mike Boynton Jr.
Brian Boesch • 10:42
It seemed like the offense was a struggle at times. What did Houston do to make things challenging for your offense?
Mike Boynton Jr. • 10:48
Today they play Houston basketball. I mean, anybody who's watched college basketball the last decade or so, that's what it looks like every single time they step on the court. What's impressive about it is it doesn't really matter the circumstances as they unfold in the game because they dealt with some adversity, foul, trouble with their bigs, their best player, you know, trying, not really getting in the rhythm, but whoever's in that game, plays the same style, may not have the same type of impact, but plays the same style. There's no drop off and it's good for us. I just told our team, the three hundred sixty four other teams of college basketball, I'm not sure we could have played against a better team for us at this point in our season than playing Against Houston, a team that would test us in many ways and expose some things to make us challenge ourselves to get better moving forward.
Brian Boesch • 11:34
Along those lines, I mean, you can tell your team anything you want in
Brian Boesch • 11:37
a scouting report, but it seemed like it took a little while to calibrate
Brian Boesch • 11:40
to just how they played. The style. That might be the toughest team to try to convey verbally. You need to see it in person. Is that fair?
Mike Boynton Jr. • 11:47
It's one of those teams. There are a few of them, same time. It's like, you know, you can do it at the start of the game. Can you do it at minute fourteen? Can you do it at minute twenty seven? Can you do it at minute thirty four, which is where they are, right? It's one thing to do it at minute one when you're fresh, you haven't been hit, nothing's going against you, you haven't missed any shots. But over. Over the course of the game, can you sustain it? And that's what they do so well.
Brian Boesch • 12:11
Roddy Gayle junior s first chance against an opponent. He's been in practices a bunch over the last few months, but what impact did he have in his performance and those around him?
Mike Boynton Jr. • 12:21
This gives us another veteran who can, you know, create offense off the bounce for us. Big physical body. Wish he rebounded a little bit better today, but we're still trying to find some rhythm with him with the different groupings that he's out there with. But I was pleased with his effort. I thought, for the most part, he gave us a little jolt of energy and playmaking and look forward to building on it.
Brian Boesch • 12:40
You mentioned both teams had to deal with a lot of fouls called in this game. Any initial reactions to some of the rotations, lineups you had to utilize, some of which maybe would not have been necessary with some of that foul issue?
Mike Boynton Jr. • 12:51
Yeah, there was definitely some lineups that we looked at today that we probably wouldn't. Didn't plan on having out there, but that's why you try to build out depth. I was really, really pleased with, you know, the run we made there in the middle of the second half. It was mostly our subs. I think Trae and Elliott were both out of the game at the time, and we had a few of our better possessions. We really needed to try to speed the game up a little bit more today. Houston did a good job controlling the tempo, and hats off to them. And we'll, like I said, we'll grow from it, learn.
Brian Boesch • 13:18
Lastly, three exhibitions out in Europe, three exhibitions here. The regular season approaching, did you get the work in you wanted to get against other opponents leading up to the first one. That really counts.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 13:29
Absolutely. We saw three distinctly different styles of play in those three games. The way we practice is difficult for us sometimes to simulate the way other teams play because we're practicing against a specific style. With us, Houston plays very different than we do. Just the physicality, the blasting through screens, putting two on the ball, things we don't do. So it was good for us to see that. We saw some different drops against Oregon State. They play similar to the way we do. And then we played against the Eastern Michigan team that just put their head down and drove it. So we saw three different styles. I was really happy what we got out of all three of these games and look forward to carrying it over into the regular season.
Brian Boesch • 14:07
Appreciate it, coach.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 14:07
Thank you.
Brian Boesch • 14:08
Lastly, a quick couple of questions with Roddy Gayle Jr.
Brian Boesch • 14:12
First, what was it like to finally get out there and play with this group and against other players?
Roddy Gayle Jr. • 14:16
This is definitely exciting to be able to play with these guys. Like, I've been practicing for a while, but it feels great to get out there. Unfortunately, we didn't come, but I think it was a lot of bright spots with how we played and I think we'd be able to go back to the film and correct some of our mistakes.
Brian Boesch • 14:30
Yeah, obviously you'll have to study the film, but initial lessons that you feel like this team can take from a team that is always there at the end of the season.
Roddy Gayle Jr. • 14:36
Yeah, I feel like throughout the past decade, Houston has always been one of the top three, top five teams in the country. So I feel like they're standard and what it looks like to be elite at every level. I think that's just something that we can take from them, how physical they were on both sides of the ball. I feel like that's something that we pride ourselves on and they were just a tougher team today. So I feel like those are some things we can immediately go back to the film and then kind of see that.
Brian Boesch • 15:00
Roddy, thanks, man. Good to see you out there.
Roddy Gayle Jr. • 15:02
Thank you.
Brian Boesch • 15:02
We'll be back with a highlight recaps once the regular season begins with the Wolverines and the Oakland Golden Grizzlies. Second straight year that Michigan kicks off the campaign against Greg Campy's crew. All right, that'll do it for me. Brian Boesch. Thanks to Terry, Rob, Coach B, and Roddy. Thanks for listening and go Blue.
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Jeff Laurence • 15:21
Thanks for listening to today's edition of Defend the Block, part of our Michigan Athletics podcast network. MGO Blue podcasts. The preceding has been a Learfield presentation of the Michigan Sports Network.
