Michigan opened the 2026-27 season with a win, but the 84-68 result over Oakland came with enough rough edges to keep the Wolverines honest.
The final margin looked comfortable enough, yet the Golden Grizzlies were hanging around for much of the night. Michigan entered as a 26.5-point favorite, but turnovers and foul trouble kept the game from ever feeling fully under control. The Wolverines also had to play without starting center Moustapha Thiam, who was out with an illness and forced Michigan to reshuffle its lineup and rotation.
That meant Oscar Goodman got the start at forward next to J.P. Estrella, who slid over to center.
The adjustment didn’t stop Michigan from getting production inside. Estrella was the biggest force down low and looked more than capable of handling the matchup against Oakland’s smaller front line.
The Tennessee transfer finished with 15 points and 12 rebounds, giving Michigan the interior presence it needed.
The other bright spot came off the bench, where freshman Quinn Costello flashed the kind of shooting touch that could make him hard to keep off the floor. Costello scored 13 of Michigan’s 22 bench points and gave the Wolverines an instant spark on offense. He’s still a young player who needs to add weight and prove he can hold up defensively in the Big Ten, but the shot is real.
Michigan’s perimeter work, though, was a different story. The Wolverines had already been shaky from deep in their last two exhibition games, shooting 25% and 27% from three, and that trend carried into the opener.
Michigan finished 21% from beyond the arc against Oakland, with Ricky Liburd and Oscar Goodman both going scoreless from three. That’s a concern if the Wolverines are going to lean more heavily on the long ball this season, as Mike Boynton Jr. said they would.
Fouls were another issue that never really went away. Michigan plays with physicality, but on this night that edge came with a cost.
The Wolverines were whistled for 23 fouls, and Estrella fouled out around the five-minute mark in the second half. With a roster that isn’t especially deep, Michigan will need to clean that up fast.
The next test comes Friday against UConn, and the Wolverines will be hoping Thiam is back in the mix and the foul trouble stays behind them.
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The concern does not stop there for the Wolverines, who are also watching Asa Burch, a top 2028 prospect and Michigan legacy, trend toward Notre Dame. For a program trying to steady itself amid on-field struggles, those developments add to the sense that the current slide is carrying real costs on the trail, even as questions swirl around the staff and the future direction of the program. [Read more 🡒]