Michigan’s first exhibition offered an early glimpse at the kind of frontcourt equation Mike Boynton Jr. is trying to solve.
Boynton has talked openly about the shooting upside in his bigs, pointing to graduate forward J.P. Estrella and junior center Moustapha Thiam as players who can stretch the floor.
“(Graduate forward J.P. Estrella and junior center Moustapha Thiam) both shoot pretty well,” Boynton said Thursday at Big Ten Media Days.
“They’ll probably shoot more threes each individually than they’ve shot before, and that’ll be good for us if they’re making them better.”
Against Eastern Michigan, though, the two were asked to carry very different loads. Thiam’s biggest imprint came at the rim, where he blocked four shots and added a steal while relentlessly patrolling the paint.
When he went to the bench, Michigan’s defense lost some of its edge, especially in the first half. With a little under five minutes left, Eastern Michigan ripped off an 8-0 run and cut the margin to three, the closest the game got.
Thiam still helped Michigan control the interior and create breathing room on the offensive end, even if he wasn’t always the one finishing those chances. His lone notable attacking moment before halftime came on the opening play, when he forced a quick alley-oop. After that, most of his value was tied to what he did without the ball.
That left Estrella to provide the scoring punch the Wolverines needed from the front line. He finished with 14 points and knocked down one 3-pointer, repeatedly giving Eastern Michigan problems when he was on the floor. Estrella, who averaged 10 points and 5.4 rebounds in the 2025-2026 season with Tennessee, arrived in Ann Arbor with a reputation as a reliable option.
The game stayed within reach early because Eastern Michigan kept producing runs, but Michigan began to pull away when Thiam started contributing more on the offensive end. His size and force near the basket helped draw fouls and send him to the line, and that edge made the difference in stretching the lead.
Estrella, meanwhile, had a tougher time matching that impact on defense. Eastern Michigan’s movement forced him into uncomfortable spots, and he often trailed plays that needed him to contest from the paint. Still, Boynton said this kind of adjustment was expected.
“We had a center playing small forward last year,” Boynton said. “We’re not gonna have a center playing small forward this year.
… We’ll be different because we won’t be as forceful around the rim as well. But I think we’ll have some protection with (Thiam) for sure, (Estrella) to a lesser extent.”
For Michigan’s frontcourt to hold up, both bigs need to bring more than just flashes of one-way value. Thiam can’t be left to shoulder all the rim protection by himself, and Estrella has to supply more on the defensive end than he did in this first look.
Estrella was clear about that afterward. “They shot, I think it was 13-18 or 13-19 from the two in the second half,” Estrella said Sunday. “I think we got to do our job of being tougher against two corners.”
This was only the first exhibition, and Michigan hardly came away with a full-blown problem. The guards stayed productive, Estrella still made his mark inside, and freshman forward Quinn Costello was automatic from deep.
Thiam also got a chance to settle in offensively after halftime. But the game did show the early shape of Michigan’s big-man burden: Thiam anchoring the defense, Estrella asked to add more force, and both needing to give a little more to keep the frontcourt balanced.
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