THE ESSENTIALS WHAT #23 Michigan (1-0) vs #312 EMU (1-0) [Upchurch] WHERE Little Caesar's Arena Detroit, MI WHEN 9:00 PM for some reason THE LINE Kenpom: M -18 Torvik: M -18 TELEVISION ESPNU THE OVERVIEW EMU is a bad MAC program heavily reliant on their one returning starter, guard Noah Farrakhan, to drive its offense. The PG and C are true freshmen, the wings are all transfers, and the only other returning contributor from the #316 team on Kenpom last year is a Just-a-Shooter who shot 32% from the arc. Unfortunately nobody is watching/going to this to see how Michigan's new backcourt handles a challenge like Farrakhan. That's because at long last Ypsilanti legend Emoni Bates gets to play a game for Michigan at Michigan in Washtenaw County against a team from Michigan somewhere in the State of Michigan. Guessing when they scheduled this game for Detroit it wasn't expected to intersect with the object of local recruiting fascination. I can't explain the 9PM start either. Was this meant to be a doubleheader with MSU before they scheduled Gonzaga on an aircraft carrier or something? Weird. Anyway: Bates! Getting Bates to the Bates Show was a near run thing after an arrest this fall. He was held out of their opener versus Wayne State for a "coach's decision" but did play in the exhibition vs GVSU. Finally of draftable age next spring, and with few other future pros on EMU's schedule, this game is being billed as the last chance for the onetime "Next Kevin Durant" to convince an NBA team he's worth a lottery pick. This site finds that doubtful. Michigan got some eye-popping offense and vein-opening defense from Jett Howard in its opener. Jett could get see a lot of time on Bates, since putting a wing on him seemed to be the play when he was at Memphis. If you're able to focus on the best basketball players on the court instead of that, well, your basketball purity is greater than mine. THE US Seth's graphic [click to embiggen]: faq for these graphics Notes: I'm combining last year's stats (where available) until there's enough sample from this year to make those charts useful. Usage is now the black circles you see, with a big circle meaning… yep, a lot of usage. Until the season's old enough to have its own stats we're going to denote transfers in other colors, indicating where the player's stats came from. THE LINEUP CARD My graphic [click for big]: Same deal: I used last year's stats where available and denoted transfers with their old team's colors. [Hit THE JUMP just for today I give you permission to fascinate about Bates]