The Michigan basketball team will host Wake Forest at the 2025 Wolverine-Deacon Challenge, Tuesday, November 11th, at 6:30 PM at downtown Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena. ESPN’s Jay Bilas ranks Michigan at #7 and Wake Forest at #51, and I scoured the internet but couldn’t find odds that I trust, although it seems that it’s a coin flip with a combined score around 160. So, what do we wish to see in this early-season matchup?
1. Continued “Big Man” Dominance
Wake Forest comes up, uh, short in comparison to Michigan’s 7’ 3” junior transfer Aday Mara, 6’ 9” sophomore transfer Morez Johnson Jr., 6’ 9” All American transfer Yaxel Lendeborg, and 6’ 8” team captain Will Tschetter. Demon Deacons are led in rebounding by 6’5” senior Mekhi Mason (10), 6’ 7” grad student Tre’Von Spillers (8), and 6’ 7” sophomore Juke Harris (7). Combined, they have five blocked shots in two games, while Mara had five against Oakland.
With such an advantage we wish to see inside efficiency (dunks, post ups, and a shot chart with little basketballs clustered around the rim), dominance at the backboard (no second shots in our end and put backs/second chances at theirs), and defensive anchors (more on the latter under #3).