Michigan basketball game score vs. UNC Asheville Bulldogs: Time, TV for season opener
Michigan Wolverines basketball vs. UNC Asheville Bulldogs
Time: 8:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Where: Crisler Center, Ann Arbor.
TV: Big Ten Network.
Radio: WWJ-AM (950) (Wolverines radio affiliates).
If you don't subscribe to a cable package or lack Big Ten Network you can sign up for Fubo with a free trial to watch the Wolverines all season.
MEET THE ROSTER: Michigan basketball 2023-24 roster: Bold predictions, everything you need to know
Game notes: The Wolverines open their 2023-24 season with a mostly new look. The uniforms are still maize and blue, but wearing them? Jett Howard and Kobe Bufkin are in the NBA, Hunter Dickinson is a Kansas Jayhawk and head coach Juwan Howard is at home recovering from offseason heart surgery.
Leading the way will be Tennessee transfer Olivier Nkamhoua, who brings a multitude of skills with him from Knoxville. First up is leadership, as Nkamhoua was voted a co-captain (along with Jace Howard, Jett’s brother and Juwan’s son) by his teammates. Next is scoring: Nkamhoua averaged 10.8 points a game for the Vols last season while shooting 51.3% from the floor and 33.3% on 3s. Nkamhoua — if we keep typing his name, spell-check will eventually remember, right? — also averaged five rebounds and two assists a game, skills he showed off in his U-M debut, an exhibition against Northwood in which he had eight rebounds, six assists and, of course, 11 points. The Wolverines also added Nimari Burnett, a high school McDonald’s All-American, as a transfer from Alabama, and Tray Jackson, a Detroit native, as a transfer from Seton Hall, giving interim head coach Phil Martelli some new talents to mix in.
The Wolverines, who missed out on the NCAA tournament last season for the first time since 2015, will get an NCAA test of sorts right away, as they face defending Big South champ Asheville, which lost to UCLA as a 15-seed in March. The Bulldogs (the coaches’ vote to win the conference again) are led by Drew Pember, who averaged 21 points a game last season. Pember — a former Vol himself; he was teammates with Nkamhoua from 2019-21 — shot just 46.4% from the field last season but made up for it with a lot of work at the free throw line: He shot 83.7% at the stripe while taking more free throws (326) than anyone else in the nation — and making more (273) than anyone else, too. The Bulldogs also return Nick McMullen, who averaged 8.1 points and 5.8 rebounds a game last season.
After tonight’s game, the Wolverines host Youngstown State at 6:30 p.m. Friday; the Penguins were picked as the No. 5 team in the preseason poll, garnering three votes for No. 1. The Bulldogs, meanwhile, return home to the Tar Heel State to face UNC Wilmington at 2 p.m. Saturday.
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Contact Ryan Ford at rford@freepress.com. Follow him on X (which used to be Twitter, y’know?) @theford.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan basketball game score vs. UNC Asheville Bulldogs: Time, TV
