![\"michigan-top-25.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/michigan-top-25.jpg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
CBS Sports Graphic<\/p>\n
The\u00a0picture snapped pregame<\/a>\u00a0of Michigan<\/a> coach Dusty May sitting in front of Michigan State’s student section should be framed forever. What followed was another Quadrant 1 victory for the Wolverines — this one on the road against a rival — that solidified them as the favorites in a loaded and deep Big Ten.<\/p>\n Final score: Michigan 83, Michigan State 81<\/a>.<\/p>\n Yaxel Lendeborg<\/a>, the UAB<\/a> transfer who is perhaps now the favorite to be the Big Ten’s Player of the Year, got 26 points and 12 rebounds in front of a capacity crowd at the Breslin Center. Elliot Cadeau<\/a>, the North Carolina<\/a> transfer, added 17 points and six assists. Morez Johnson Jr.<\/a>, the Illinois<\/a> transfer, finished with 12 points and four rebounds. Trey McKenney<\/a>, the 6-foot-4 freshman, got 10 points. Add it up, and \u00a0Michigan’s four double-digit scorers in this 40-minute contest are all first-year players in the program, a fact that serves as evidence that great teams can be built in one offseason provided the staff doing the building is competent and properly supported by its administration and boosters\/collectives.<\/p>\n “I just let them get all their frustration and their animosity out early, and then that way they can enjoy the game” May joked\/explained when asked about sitting in front of the students during warmups. “So, I felt like I contributed to the environment just a little bit.”<\/p>\n Michigan is No. 4 in Saturday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings, where Arizona<\/a> remains No. 1 for the 21st consecutive day. Next up for the Wolverines is Thursday’s game against Penn State<\/a>. After that, they’ll play back-to-back road games at Ohio State<\/a> (Feb. 9) and at Northwestern<\/a> (Feb. 11).<\/p>\n Top 25 And 1 rankings <\/p>\n \n Biggest Movers\n <\/p>\n \n 1<\/p>\n Iowa State\n <\/p>\n \n 3<\/p>\n Michigan St.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CBS Sports Graphic The\u00a0picture snapped pregame\u00a0of Michigan coach Dusty May sitting in front of Michigan State’s student section…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,217,37927,60152,60153,62790,1739,1043],"class_list":{"0":"post-573545","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-college-basketball","10":"tag-college-basketball-rankings","11":"tag-college-basketball-top-25","12":"tag-college-basketball-top-25-and-1","13":"tag-mens-college-basketball-rankings","14":"tag-michigan","15":"tag-michigan-wolverines"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115991423191772338","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573545","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=573545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}