Michigan basketball game score vs. Long Beach State: Time, how to watch Wolverines
Michigan Wolverines basketball (3-0) vs. Long Beach State (1-2)
Time: 7 p.m. Friday.
Where: Crisler Center, Ann Arbor.
TV: Big Ten Network Plus (streaming online only).
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.
LAST TIME OUT: Michigan basketball's guards have career nights in 89-73 win at St. John's
Game notes: On paper — or at least in Ken Pomeroy’s college hoops rankings — this one shouldn’t be close. The Wolverines enter Friday at No. 24 in the KenPom queue — not quite up to the level or Purdue (No. 1) or … actually, that’s it: The Boilermakers are the only Big Ten team playing better than the Wolverines, according to the analytics (which should bode well for another one-and-done weekend for the 16 or so Big Ten teams that make the NCAA tourney next March).
U-M is getting everything it asked for from Tennessee transfer Olivier Nkamhoua, who’s averaging 17 points, 8 rebounds and 3.7 assists in his three maize-and-blue-clad appearances. Even more encouraging is the performance of sophomore point guard Dug McDaniel, whose 21.3 points a game got a nice boost from scoring 26 against St. John’s on Monday. There are some outliers in the averages, too — Will Tschetter probably won’t average 12.7 points a game this season, or keep up his 77.8% clip on 3-pointers. But there’s room for improvement, too, as Tarris Reed Jr. is averaging 7.7 points and 7.3 rebounds a game despite logging just 21.3 minutes an outing.
Long Beach State, meanwhile — they’re just “the Beach,” despite having a shark (“Elbee”) on the home sidelines — has been surprisingly competitive despite its underlying numbers. The Beach took down the Blue Demons (who should handle sand and waves better, you’d think) of DePaul last Saturday in Chicago thanks to 22 points on 8-for-16 shooting by guard Marcus Tsohonis. He’s well adapted for the Beach’s nomadic early schedule, as he spent two seasos at Washington and another at VCU before arriving at Long Beach ahead of the 2022-23 campaign. Tsohonis had another team-high night Tuesday as the Beach just missed taking down the Aztecs (who REALLY should handle sand better) of San Diego State, aka, last season’s NCAA tourney runners-up.
After tonight’s matchup, the Wolverines head to a beach of another sort — no capital “B,” just an oddly ungrammatical numeral usage, as U-M faces Memphis to open the “Battle 4 Atlantis” in the Bahamas on Wednesday afternoon. The Beach, meanwhile — the ones from Long Beach State, that is — have a slightly less glamorous destination: Fort Myers, Florida, where they’ll take on Illinois State in the Gulf Coast Showcase at 1:30 p.m. Monday.
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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. Long Beach State: Time, streaming
