Michigan men’s basketball had a productive trip to the West Coast as the new year got underway, sweeping new Big Ten Conference additions USC and UCLA to improve to 4-0 in league play.

Late Tuesday night, the No. 24 Wolverines built an 18-point first half lead before the No. 22 Bruins came soaring back with an extended 28-6 run to take the lead themselves, 55-51, with just over 14 minutes left in the game. However, Michigan responded, outscoring the Bruins 39-24 the rest of the way for a 94-75 victory.

Michigan’s 94 points were the most points allowed by UCLA all season by far, with four Wolverines reaching double figures. Here are five takeaways from U-M’s fourth consecutive victory…

Michigan big man Vlad Goldin easily had his best game in a Maize and Blue uniform, and perhaps the best of his collegiate career against the Bruins. The 7-foot center finished with a career-high 36 points on 13-of-18 shooting from the floor and 9-for-11 from the free throw line.

The Wolverines’ center added seven rebounds, two assists and a blocked shot in a spectacular performance. UCLA had no answer for Goldin as he scored 21 points in the first half for Michigan, and while the 7-footer was slowed somewhat in the second half by foul trouble and some adjustments from the Bruins, Goldin helped the Wolverines close out this road victory in L.A.

After a slow start to the season, Goldin has really come into his own over the past three or so week, and has become a dominant force in the Wolverines’ frontcourt.

It was a career day for point guard Tre Donaldson as well, who played an instrumental role in Michigan’s second-half comeback in L.A. With the Wolverines’ trailing by four, Donaldson knocked down a 3-point shot, found forward Will Tschetter for another triple, and hit another 3 himself on three consecutive trips to pull Michigan back even.

Later in the second half, with Goldin and fellow big Danny Wolf each on the bench with four fouls, Donaldson hit two more 3-pointers to extend Michigan’s lead from eight to 12, assisting Nimari Burnett on a third triple minutes later. That stretch sealed the deal for the Maize and Blue.

Donaldson finished with a career-high 20 points on a red-hot 7-of-11 shooting, including 6-of-10 from deep. He added seven assists, six rebounds and a pair of steals for the Wolverines. When Donaldson plays like this, Michigan will be tough for anyone in the country to beat.

Danny Wolf has emerged as a contender for Big Ten Player of the Year this season, but he had a rough second game in Los Angeles. The 7-foot forward played too loose with the basketball and was frustrated by UCLA’s defense, resulting in seven turnovers for Wolf alone. The transfer from Yale also found himself in foul trouble, which forced him to sit for much of the second half.

Despite this, Wolf still managed to score 12 points on an efficient 4-of-7 shooting, and made his usual contributions in other areas with eight rebounds, six assists, a blocked shot and a steal. Wolf can play a little out of control at times, and was clearly frustrated tonight, but still played a large role in Michigan’s victory.

Meanwhile, with small forward Roddy Gayle Jr. out with injury, the Wolverines needed Nimari Burnett to continue his strong play of late, and they got just that from the senior. Burnett scored 17 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the floor and 3-for-4 from deep. He added four rebounds, four assists and two steals.

The season is still young, but Michigan has the makings of a team that can win the Big Ten and make a run in the NCAA Tournament this March. However, the Wolverines have two key areas they must address in order to realize that potential — limiting turnovers and holding on to double-digit leads.

Michigan had 16 turnovers against UCLA’s tough, aggressive defense, which led to 20 points for the Bruins. The Wolverines did a better job after halftime, but this remains a lingering issue for Dusty May’s squad. During UCLA’s 28-6 run between the end of the first and beginning of the second half, Michigan had five turnovers in about a nine-minute stretch, which contributed to the Wolverines’ blowing its 18-point lead.

Michigan has had several leads evaporate this season, including all three of their losses. The turnovers have played a major role in the Wolverines’ inability to hold these leads, and that will keep this team from realizing its full potential unless it’s corrected.

As mentioned above, there’s some areas to clean up in order for Michigan to reach it’s potential and win championships this season. However, the Wolverines are underrated as the current No. 24 team in the country (per the Associated Press).

Michigan’s three losses have come by a combined five points against Wake Forest (72-70), Arkansas (89-87) and No. 17 Oklahoma (87-86), and the Wolverines led in each of those three defeats. That’s how close this team is to being 15-0. The combined record of those three teams is 35-8.

Ultimately, the Wolverines’ national ranking will take care of itself as long as they continue to win games. Michigan has an excellent chance to continue to build momentum, with homes games against Washington (10-5, 1-3 Big Ten) and Northwestern (10-5, 1-3) sandwiched around a road game at Minnesota (8-7, 0-4) over the next week and a half.

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Washington ― The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development allocated nearly $461 million in disaster aid this week to Michigan, Detroit and Wayne County to help individuals, businesses and localities recover from flooding, tornadoes and storms in late August 2023, officials said Tuesday.

The funding was approved in late December as part of a stop-gap spending package to fund the federal government into March.

Tuesday’s announcement by HUD included nearly $12 billion in Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery funds for communities across 24 states and territories. About $346.9 million was allocated for Detroit, $70.4 million for Wayne County and $43.7 million for the state of Michigan.

“This $12 billion in disaster discovery funds will help rebuild homes, develop affordable housing, assist impacted small businesses, and repair roads, schools, water treatment plants and other critical infrastructure,” Acting HUD Secretary Adrianne Todman said in a statement. 

“The impacts of these funds will be felt for years to come ― especially for disaster survivors and communities in the most impacted areas.” 

The agency said the funds may be used to replace damaged affordable housing, strengthen infrastructure through repairs, upgrades and activities to increase the resilience of public facilities and infrastructure including roadways, water systems and utilities. 

The money may also bolster “economic revitalization” including support for small businesses and job creation or to implement disaster mitigation measures to reduce risk of damage from future extreme weather and disaster events, according to a news release.

HUD indicated the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program is for responding to presidentially declared disasters like the the tornadoes and storms that hit the state Aug. 24-26, 2023.

Seven tornadoes touched down in Michigan on Aug. 24 that year as part of severe weather system that caused two deaths, downed trees, damaged buildings and spurred flooding. Four of the twisters hit Wayne County, just one day after parts of the county were doused with seven inches of rain that wreaked havoc on air travel at Detroit Metro Airport.

At the time, the storms prompted Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to declare a state of emergency.

The National Weather Service said one tornado in eastern Ingham County had traveled along Interstate 96 for 1.5 miles, causing so much damage that the highway had to be shut down in both directions.

The confirmed EF2 tornado packing wind speeds of up to 125 miles per hour flipped vehicles and leveled forested areas along a stretch of highway between Webberville and Williamston, snapping trees in half.

President Joe Biden issued that disaster declaration months later in February 2024.  

Staff writer Craig Mauger contributed.

mburke@detroitnews.com

Michigan football doesn’t like Ohio State.

It’s a statement that certainly is not “new” to the Wolverines’ fanbase — or anyone who knows anything about college football — but it was one that was reaffirmed in front of the entire world on Monday, in an entirely different arena.

During Monday night’s WWE Monday Night Raw at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California, a sign appeared on the Netflix live stream that pointed out the Wolverines’ streak vs. Ohio State: “1,864 DAYS SINCE OSU BEAT MICHIGAN,” the sign read.

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The sign, of course, is in reference to the Wolverines’ dominance against the Buckeyes over the last four year on the gridiron — all of which has come under Ryan Day’s tenure at Ohio State.

Michigan’s win streak began on Nov. 27, 2021 with a 42-27 romp over Ohio State at Michigan Stadium. The Wolverines then followed that up with a 45-23 win in 2022, a 30-24 victory in 2023 and then this season’s 13-10 win on Nov. 30, 2024. Over the course of its four-game win streak, Michigan has not only outscored Ohio State 130-84, but also kept the Buckeyes out of the College Football Playoff twice.

Of the Wolverines’ last four wins against the Buckeyes, perhaps none is more historic than the most recent, when Sherrone Moore’s squad upset Day’s Buckeyes at Ohio Stadium after being a near 20-point underdog. Moore improved his record to 2-0 against the Buckeyes, with his first win coming in 2023 when he served as Michigan’s interim head coach. Meanwhile, the Wolverines made Day just the fourth coach in Buckeyes’ history to lose four consecutive games to Michigan.

To make Michigan’s win this year even sweeter, Ohio State was eliminated from competing in the Big Ten championship game — and potentially earning a first-round bye to the College Football Playoff. The Buckeyes, however, made the CFP as an at-large, and will compete in Friday’s Cotton Bowl semifinal for a chance at the national championship game.

The Wolverines will look to extend their win streak to five against the Buckeyes on Saturday, Nov. 29 at The Big House in Ann Arbor.