Michigan men’s basketball is on the road for the final time in its non-conference season, and the opponent at hand could provide Dusty May’s squad its biggest test yet.
The Wolverines will face the undefeated and 14th-ranked Oklahoma Sooners on Wednesday night at the 2024 Jumpman Invitational in Charlotte. Tip-off is scheduled for approximately 9 p.m., or 30 minutes following the Florida/North Carolina women’s match-up. The game will air ESPN2 with Dave O’Brien, Debbie Antonelli and Myron Medcalf on the call.
The annual Jumpman Invitational features the original four schools that signed partnerships with Jordan Brand in basketball and football — Florida, Michigan, North Carolina and Oklahoma — in a two-day December event in Charlotte, N.C. The U-M women also met the Sooners as part of the event, falling 72-62 on Tuesday.
Dusty May joined “Inside Michigan Basketball” with Brian Boesch and Terry Mills to discuss the Wolverines through 10 games and the upcoming showdown against Oklahoma. Here’s what he said about the Sooners:
Several things stand out. They’ve done an amazing job. Their pieces complement each other well. Like us, they don’t have a team that you would simply click a make-your-player mold and everyone fits exactly perfectly. But what they have are guys that complement each other and they live in their strengths.
They’ve got great guard play. They’ve got a dynamic wing forward that drives the ball, that can make threes, that plays with physicality. And then they’ve got a center that does all the dirty work and makes those other four players on the court that he’s with play better and function even better as a group. So they’re unique, but they’ve done a great job.
This is college basketball. They’ve beat a couple of teams that were preseason top-10 that are nowhere to be found, and I anticipate today that they’ll be top-10 in this week’s poll. Going forward, we’re going to see a lot of this where you just don’t know and it’s a matter of which group of players decide to put aside their own personal ambition and come together as a group and play well as a team. And they’re certainly doing that because they’ve been very, very good this year.
The crazy part is [Jeremiah Fears], their point guard, is supposed to be playing high school games right now. He reclassed early. And for a freshman point guard to do what he’s doing, it just shows a different level of maturity and just basketball IQ. His dad was a great player. He comes from a basketball family. So he’s been a big part of making it go after they lost their backcourt to the portal last year.
Fears is by far the focal point for the Sooners on offense. He’s commanding 32.7% usage, 14th-highest in the country per KenPom, while shooting 56.8% on twos and 86.2% from the free throw line. He has helped lead Oklahoma to an undefeated start — one of five programs without a loss, joining Florida, Tennessee, Utah State and Drake — that included a Battle 4 Atlantis crown featuring wins over Providence, Arizona and Louisville.
The other major offensive contributor for OU is senior Jalon Moore, the 2024 Battle 4 Atlantis MVP after 24-point outings against Arizona and Louisville. The 6-foot-7 power forward is in his second season in the crimson and cream after transferring from Georgia Tech.
The Wolverines enter off a self-improvement week; they haven’t played since a loss to Arkansas last Tuesday. Speaking last Friday, May said U-M has prioritized turnovers and defensive rebounding during the break.
“Obviously, the turnovers are glaring, and the defensive rebounding are the two most important stats we need to fix,” May said.
KenPom predicts a three-point win for the Wolverines at the Spectrum Center. Join our FREE live thread for updates!
