{"id":511670,"date":"2026-01-02T11:50:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T11:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/511670\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T11:50:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T11:50:13","slug":"no-2-ranked-michigan-basketball-ring-in-new-year-vs-ranked-usc-on-detroit-pistons-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/511670\/","title":{"rendered":"No. 2-ranked Michigan basketball ring in new year vs. ranked USC on Detroit Pistons night"},"content":{"rendered":"

ANN ARBOR, Mich. \u2013 The No. 2-ranked Michigan Wolverines<\/a> men\u2019s basketball team will ring in the new year against the No. 24-ranked USC Trojans on Detroit Pistons<\/a> night in Ann Arbor<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The game will take place on Friday, Jan. 2, 2026, on Peacock at 7 p.m., as Michigan looks to improve to 13-0 on the season, with Big Ten play reigniting in front of a sold-out crowd at Crisler Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The matchup reunites Michigan with former Wolverines forward Terrance Williams II<\/a>, who played four seasons in Ann Arbor and contributed to the 2021 Big Ten title and NCAA Sweet 16 appearances in 2021 and 2022.<\/p>\n

PISCATAWAY, NEW JERSEY – FEBRUARY 29: Terrance Williams II #5 of the Michigan Wolverines in action against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights during a game at Jersey Mike’s Arena on February 29, 2024 in Piscataway, New Jersey. Rutgers defeated Michigan 82-52. (Photo by Rich Schultz\/Getty Images) (2024 Rich Schultz)<\/p>\n

This game marks the Wolverines\u2019 fifth consecutive sellout at Crisler Arena<\/a>, underscoring the team\u2019s strong fan support.<\/p>\n

Michigan remains one of six undefeated teams nationally, joining No. 1 Arizona, No. 3 Iowa State, No. 11 Vanderbilt, No. 13 Nebraska, and Miami (Ohio) on the list.<\/p>\n

The Wolverines are off to one of the most dominant starts in modern college basketball history, with nine wins by 20 or more points. <\/p>\n

This includes six victories by 40 or more points, one by 50+, and two wins over Top 25 opponents.<\/p>\n

Six of Michigan\u2019s last eight wins have been by 30 points or more. <\/p>\n

Their 41-point win over McNeese (112-71) on Monday, Dec. 29, 2025, gave them six victories by 40+ points this season, the most in Big Ten history.<\/p>\n

Michigan has scored 100 or more points in six of its last seven games, averaging 101.1 points per game during that stretch. <\/p>\n

The Wolverines rank third nationally with an average of 96.8 points per game this season.<\/p>\n

Michigan\u2019s scoring average is 7.4 points higher than the next Big Ten team, USC, which averages 89.4 points per game.<\/p>\n

The men in maize have recorded 20 or more assists in five of their last six games. <\/p>\n

Michigan ranks second nationally with 21.6 assists per game, trailing only Texas A&M.<\/p>\n

Point guard Elliot Cadeau<\/a> has been a standout in December, posting four double-figure scoring games in five contests. <\/p>\n

Cadeau shot 52.3% from the field and 57.1% from three-point range, increasing his scoring average to 9.8 points per game.<\/p>\n

He is the only Wolverine to make at least one three-pointer in every game this season. <\/p>\n

His 22 made threes already exceed half of his total from last season at North Carolina.<\/p>\n

Trey McKenney<\/a> has scored in double figures in six of his last seven games.<\/p>\n

L.J. Cason<\/a> has made 10 three-pointers in his last five games after making three in his first six. <\/p>\n

Cason has hit a career-best three three-pointers in a game three times during this stretch.<\/p>\n

Aday Mara<\/a> has recorded a block in every game this season, with 10 multi-block performances and eight consecutive games with two or more blocks. <\/p>\n

Mara leads the Big Ten with 2.58 blocks per game, ranking 11th nationally.<\/p>\n

Morez Johnson Jr.<\/a>, averaging 13.6 points per game, opened his Michigan career with a career-high 24 points against Oakland University<\/a>, shooting 10-for-11. <\/p>\n

Johnson Jr. matched that scoring output with 24 points in the recent game against McNeese.<\/p>\n

Yaxel Lendeborg<\/a> has been highly efficient inside, shooting 77.8% on two-point attempts (42-for-54) and leads Michigan with 15.7 points per game.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WDIV ClickOnDetroit – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ANN ARBOR, Mich. \u2013 The No. 2-ranked Michigan Wolverines men\u2019s basketball team will ring in the new year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511671,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3773],"tags":[8763,14908,7,71508,15006,296,188,3860,8761,15012,1043,2053,6,71510,297,71509,15008,3549],"class_list":["post-511670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-detroit-pistons","tag-aday-mara","tag-ann-arbor","tag-basketball","tag-crisler-arena","tag-crisler-center","tag-detroit","tag-detroit-pistons","tag-detroitpistons","tag-elliot-cadeau","tag-l-j-cason","tag-michigan-wolverines","tag-morez-johnson-jr","tag-nba","tag-oakland-university","tag-pistons","tag-terrance-williams-ii","tag-trey-mckenney","tag-yaxel-lendeborg"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115825359209125221","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}