Last week, we started our offseason series of ranking the best Michigan men’s basketball players since the first time the Wolverines won a national championship back in 1989 to celebrate a 37-year history of Michigan basketball between titles. Today, we look at the next tier up, and it’s a significant one from our scoring model from a batch of already quality list of players in the first rendition of this series.
Michigan
Caitlin Clark’s game-winning 3-pointer saves Iowa women’s basketball vs. Michigan State
Hear from Caitlin Clark, Lisa Bluder and Molly Davis after Iowa’s thrilling win over MSU
Hear from Caitlin Clark, Lisa Bluder and Molly Davis after Iowa’s thrilling win over Michigan State.
IOWA CITY — Those cloaked in Iowa gold wiggled and fidgeted as the scoreboard drama intensified, this sold-out affair unfolding much differently than expected. The long Big Ten slog tends to produce a few of these even for seasoned squads.
In swooped Caitlin Clark to make sure everyone rested easy.
Locked in a clunky offensive battle Tuesday with a Michigan State women’s basketball team trending upward, No. 4 Iowa had to quickly brush away any thoughts of a masterpiece and shift to finding an escape route. Unsurprisingly, it was Clark who located it — burying a logo trey at the horn to hand the Hawkeyes a 76-73 win at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
“Honestly,” Clark said, “when it left my hand, I knew it was going in.”
The immediate moments before Clark’s final act of an incredible 40-point night served as a microcosm of the Hawkeyes’ erratic offensive evening. With time running out and Clark hunting an opening that was hard to locate, this 73-73 affair seemed destined for overtime.
Hannah Stuelke, with her back to the basket at the top of the key, dished it over to Clark — who shook free from Michigan State’s Moira Joiner for just a second before hitting a stepback to the left and firing away on the 3-point shot.
The sweet swish and ensuing roar let everyone know the outcome.
Stuelke (15 points) was the only other Hawkeye to score in double figures. Kate Martin led Iowa with 11 rebounds. Clark added five assists and three steals.
“Those are situations we work on at the end of practice every single day,” said Clark, who finished 14-for-34 from the field and 8-for-20 from deep. “We ran a play to inbound the ball, got it cleanly. Molly (Davis) did set a clean pick on my girl, but Hannah’s defender was up guarding her pretty well.
“I think it kind of worked out in my favor because my girl almost went for a steal a little bit, and then I was able to get to my stepback to the left — which is the shot I want to get to.”
Concern quickly shifted to celebration with Clark’s magical heave, but little up to that point had unfolded smoothly for the Hawkeyes (14-1, 3-0 Big Ten Conference). Just as it was last season at the Breslin Center, Tuesday’s matchup featured a bunch of scrappy Spartans hunting a monumental upset. A roaring home crowd that easily brushed off an 8 p.m. weekday tip did little to derail Michigan State when the tense, late energy kicked in.
Clark’s trey with 2:32 left handed the Hawkeyes a 71-67 advantage and offered Michigan State a chance to bow out admirably. But the Spartans didn’t take it. Consecutive buckets brought Michigan State back even, and the same happened after DeeDee Hagemann countered Davis’ two free throws on a questionable 3-point shooting foul for a 73-73 tie.
SOCIAL MEDIA REACTION: What they’re saying about Caitlin Clark’s game-winning 3 for Iowa women’s basketball
FROM LAST SEASON: Caitlin Clark’s game-winning three lifts No. 6 Iowa women’s basketball over No. 2 Indiana
“I missed the first (free throw) on purpose so Caitlin could hit the game-winner,” Davis joked.
Clark’s heroics erased that error and several others, most notably a tough first half that saw Iowa muster only 10 second-quarter points en route to a 37-35 halftime deficit.
Iowa opened up a double-digit cushion late in the first quarter and led by nine with six minutes until the break, before sputtering into intermission with similar struggles seen at the start. After landing the opening blow with an 8-0 run to start the game, Michigan State closed the half with a 9-0 surge in the last four minutes.
This squad enduring one extended sputter like that is stunning enough; then came another one barging in early in the third quarter. The Hawkeyes finished six seconds short of a second four-minute scoring drought and spent the entire third period chasing until eight consecutive Clark points stabilized things a bit before the fourth.
“Ball movement, I thought we were very stagnant,” said Iowa coach Lisa Bluder, whose Hawkeyes finished 9-for-30 from deep and had almost as many turnovers (13) as assists (14). We didn’t pass the ball well, didn’t really reverse the ball. We didn’t get the ball into the paint and back out. To me, it was all ball movement.”
Having No. 22 on your side, though, can make everything right in the end.
Dargan Southard is a sports trending reporter and covers Iowa athletics for the Des Moines Register and HawkCentral.com. Email him at msouthard@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter at @Dargan_Southard.
The Spartans have a plethora of players coming in for official visits this weekend.
Few are bigger than 4-star cornerback/wide receiver Gideon Gash.
Gash is a 6-foot-4, 205-pound speedster out of Detroit Catholic Central High School in Novi, Michigan. He holds a 91 rating from 247Sports, which ranks him as the third-best recruit in Michigan for the 2027 class and the fifth-best athlete in the entire class. His 91 rating is also good enough to rank him as the No. 70 overall recruit in the nation.
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His composite score is nearly as good as it gets at 0.9701. That keeps him ranked as the fifth-best athlete in the recruiting class while moving him up to the second-highest-rated recruit in the state of Michigan. His composite score is also the 70th-best mark nationally.
If you’re reading this and thinking you thought the Spartans already had a Gash on the roster, you’d be correct. In fact, they have two.
Older brother Caleb Gash is a redshirt sophomore on the Spartan roster and plays safety for Joe Rossi and the defense. Then, earlier this year, another older brother, Samson Gash, signed his commitment to the Michigan State Spartans. Samson was ranked as the seventh-best recruit in the state of Michigan in the 2026 class and the No. 43 wide receiver in the country. So, in fact, there are already two Gash brothers on the Spartans’ roster, with Gideon still deciding where he wants to play following his final years of high school football.
The Gash brothers are certainly not new to the game. Their father, Sam Gash, enjoyed a successful football career of his own. He played at Penn State from 1987-1991 before being selected in the eighth round of the 1992 NFL Draft by the New England Patriots. He also spent time with the Buffalo Bills, Baltimore Ravens, and New Orleans Saints during his NFL career. Gash was a Super Bowl XXXV champion and a two-time Pro Bowl selection. Following his playing days, he went on to coach in the NFL with the New York Jets, Detroit Lions, and Green Bay Packers.
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Gideon Gash has been one of Pat Fitzgerald’s most important recruiting targets since arriving at Michigan State. Alongside Joe Rossi and James Adams, Fitzgerald has played a key role in the Spartans’ pursuit of the talented athlete. Based on the recruiting efforts so far, it appears Michigan State would prefer to see Gash on the defensive side of the ball, where he could line up alongside his older brother Caleb.
Gash was named the 2026 MVP of the Polynesian Bowl National Showcase & Combine after clocking a blazing 4.35-second 40-yard dash.
As a junior in 2025, Gash was a two-way standout for Detroit Catholic Central, helping lead the Shamrocks to a 14-1 record and a Michigan Division 1 state championship. He played both wide receiver and cornerback throughout the season.
On offense, Gash caught 19 passes for 540 yards, averaging 28.4 yards per catch, while scoring eight touchdowns. Defensively, he totaled 74 tackles, three tackles for loss, nine pass breakups, one interception, one forced fumble, and one fumble recovery. He also added a kickoff return touchdown.
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In the state championship game against Cass Tech, Gash delivered one of his best performances of the season. He recorded six tackles and one pass breakup on defense while hauling in three receptions for 126 yards and three touchdowns on offense.
According to 247Sports, Gash currently appears warm on four programs: Michigan State, Texas Tech, Alabama, and Oklahoma. He also holds offers from Auburn, Boston College, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, LSU, Louisville, Michigan, Missouri, Northwestern, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Wake Forest, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
There is certainly no shortage of interest in one of the nation’s top athletes, meaning the Spartans will have to work hard to fend off some of the premier programs in college football.
Having two brothers already on the roster is a great starting point for Michigan State. However, it will take a strong official visit this weekend to continue building momentum and potentially put the Spartans in an even better position moving forward.
No. 22 – F Morez Johnson Jr. – Score: 78.4
The first player from Michigan’s 2025-26 team has made it on the list, and it’s the bodyguard himself, Morez Johnson Jr. His stint in Ann Arbor was short, but impactful. After transferring in from Illinois, he found his way into a starting lineup with two other players 6-foot-9 or taller in Yaxel Lendeborg and Aday Mara. The trio wreaked havoc all season long thanks to their length and athleticism in a scheme tailor-made by head coach Dusty May.
Johnson was one of the most efficient players in the country, averaging 13.1 points per game on a 62.3 percent clip. He also led the team with 7.3 rebounds per game and was commonly considered one of the best defensive players on the floor with his ability to guard all five positions. He was a Second-Team All-Big Ten and was on the All-Big Ten Defensive Team as well.
No. 21 – F Deshawn Sims – Score: 78.9
In the transition from Tommy Amaker to John Beilein, Deshawn Sims was a part of a special group that propelled the program to relevancy again. Sims was the 19th player in program history to reach 1,500 career points, and the 15th to surpass 700 rebounds. Consistency was key, as he played in 129 consecutive games over four seasons, starting 92 of them.
Everything came together for the Wolverines in the 2008-09 season when Sims and co-star Manny Harris led the team to its first NCAA Tournament appearance in more than a decade. The team underperformed in 2009-10, but Sims’ play stayed consistent.
Along with the elite company Sims established with his longevity, he was also a three-time All-Big Ten honoree and averaged 16.1 points and 7.2 rebounds per game over his final two seasons.
No. 20 – F Ray Jackson – Score: 81.6
Not only did we have the introduction to the 2026 championship team, but this stretch also introduces us to the Fab Five with forward Ray Jackson, the final member of the historic 1991 class.
Jackson not only has the pedigree tied to the culture that surrounded the Fab Five and their two runner-up finishes in the NCAA Tournament, but he was also a great player. One could argue he was the most unheralded of the bunch and deserves more credit than he does. Somehow, he was only a two-time All-Big Ten performer, but he averaged 17.1 points and 7.3 rebounds per game in his final three seasons with the program.
He ascended from the last of the Fab Five to a premier Big Ten player during his four-year career, helping guide Maurice Taylor — an honorable mention in this series — to being a member of the All-Big Ten freshman team when Jackson was a senior.
Jackson’s impact was profound, not just for his role in the Fab Five but for the transition out of it with future players who had impossible shoes to fill. The Wolverines not only stayed afloat, but remained tournament teams in the years following, which would have meant more had that era not been tarnished with “scandal” for a fraction of what is being done today in the NIL world.
- The Top 25 Michigan men’s basketball players since 1989: No. 25-23
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