The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1061540
JANUARY 2019 THE WOLVERINE 13 INSIDE MICHIGAN ATHLETICS 1st Was the seed Michigan was given in NCAA.com basketball expert Andy Katz's projected March Madness bracket, re- leased Dec. 7. It was an improvement of five slots from their preseason No. 6 seed. Katz also predicted how his bracket would play out and picked Michigan to fall to fellow No. 1 seed Gonzaga in the national championship game. He noted U-M "has sur passed pre - season expecta- tions" and "might actually have a better team" than last year. He furthered his point with this observation: "The Tar Heels are the only team to have scored more than 61 on Michi- gan's rock-solid defense this year, and even they only man- aged 67 — 26 points below their season average." 2 U-M commits were named their home state's Gatorade Football Player of the Year — three-star athlete Mike Sain- ristil (Massachusetts) and four-star quarterback Cade McNa- mara (Nevada). 2.2 Blocks per game for junior center JON TESKE through the first 10 contests. The last Wolverine to post a clip of more than 1.5 blocks per game was Ekpe Udoh in 2007-08 (2.9). If Teske kept up his current pace, his single-season average would tie Roy Tarpley (1984-85) for sixth in school history. 3rd Is where Michigan's matchup with Florida in the Chick-fil- A Peach Bowl checked in on Sports Illustrated's non-College Football Playoff bowl watchability rankings, behind only the Rose Bowl and Fiesta Bowl. "Points are a big factor on this list, but the Peach Bowl is not one of the games where that's part of the appeal," the publication noted. "These teams have talent all over the defensive side of the ball. … This will be a physical, intense game that comes down to which offense can make more plays." Yahoo! Sports' power rankings of all bowl games (which included the CFP semifinals) placed the game eighth, while ESPN also included the CFP semifinals in its ranking of the bowls by entertainment value and listed Michigan/Florida seventh. 13 Sacks by junior linebacker Devin Bush Jr. the last two sea- sons according to Pro Football Focus, who noted that total is the highest of any Power Five off-ball linebacker. On the outlet's first mock draft for 2019 (released Dec. 3) Bush was the highest-selected Wolverine, at No. 22, one spot ahead of where they placed classmate defensive end Rashan Gary, though it's worth noting as of Dec. 10 Bush has not an- nounced if he will depart early for the NFL. 14-1 Are Michigan basketball's odds to win a national title, per Bovada, as of Dec. 4. The Wolverines opened the season at 60-1 and now are tied for the fifth-best odds nation- ally. 21.0 Was Michigan basket- ball's average margin of victory over ranked foes through Dec. 10. They beat No. 8 Villa- nova, the defending national champions, by 27; No. 11 North Carolina by 17 and No. 19 Purdue by 19. Freshman Ig- nas Brazdeikis is averaging 18.0 p o i n t s a n d 4.7 rebounds w h i l e shooting a c o m - b i n e d 64.5 per- cent from the floor (20 of 31) in those contests — the scoring average and shooting percentage are both higher than his year- long clips through 10 games (17.0 and 51.9 percent, re- spectively). 197 Spots U-M running back com- mit Zach Charbonnet moved up in the Rivals.com recruiting rankings when the updated top 100 was re- vealed Dec. 4. The four-star pros- pect is now listed No. 39 overall nationally and as the country's fourth-best running back. By The NUMBERS PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL