3. Michigan Wolverines – 2/21, Capital One Arena
The Wolverines are early in the Dusty May era but the returns have been great. Michigan has a loaded roster and they enter the season ranked number 7, one spot behind Duke. Michigan does lose talent from last year’s roster but they had one of the best transfer classes of the year.
Michigan added Yaxel Lendeborg who is the number one ranked player in the transfer portal. He strongly considered the NBA but opted to come to Michigan for one season. He is joined by several other bigs including Morez Johnson and Aday Mara. The other transfer portal addition is Elliot Cadeau who will run the team from the guard spot.
Michigan certainly has to mesh quickly but teams that have added several veteran portal players have faired well. Dusty May can also flat out coach. This is a tough matchup for Duke because Michigan is a big, physical team. Lendeborg is going to be a very tough matchup for the wings of Duke. Foul trouble will likely dictate this matchup and Cadeau has a knack for drawing fouls.
