Michigan
Donald Trump wins Missouri caucuses. Michigan and Idaho Republicans will also weigh in on 2024 race
By Jonathan J. Cooper, Associated Press
Donald Trump has won Missouri’s Republican caucuses, one of three events Saturday that will award delegates for the GOP presidential nomination.
The former president, who is especially strong in caucuses, was adding to his delegate lead in Republican caucuses in Missouri as well as at a party convention in Michigan. Idaho was scheduled to hold its caucuses later Saturday. Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, meanwhile, is still seeking her first win.
There are no Democratic contests on Saturday.
The next contest is the GOP caucus Sunday in the District of Columbia. Two days later is Super Tuesday, when 16 states and American Samoa will hold primaries on what will be the largest day of voting of the year outside of the November election. Trump is on track to lock up the nomination days later.
Michigan
Michigan Republicans at their convention in Grand Rapids on Saturday began allocating 39 of the state’s 55 GOP presidential delegates. But a significant portion of the party’s grassroots force was skipping the gathering because of the lingering effects of a monthslong dispute over the party’s leadership.
Trump handily won Michigan’s primary this past Tuesday with 68% of the vote compared with Haley’s 27%.
Michigan Republicans were forced to split their delegate allocation into two parts after Democrats, who control the state government, moved Michigan into the early primary states, violating the national Republican Party’s rules.
Missouri
The Missouri Republican Party held its presidential caucuses on Saturday, offering state voters their only chance to weigh in on who should represent the party on the November presidential ballot.
Voters lined up outside a church in Columbia, home to the University of Missouri, before the doors opened.
“I don’t know what my role here will be, besides standing in a corner for Trump,” Columbia resident Carmen Christal said, adding that she’s “just looking forward to the experience of it.”
This year will be the first test of the new system, which is almost entirely run by volunteers on the Republican side.
The caucuses were organized after GOP Gov. Mike Parson signed a 2022 law that, among other things, canceled the planned March 12 presidential primary.
Lawmakers have failed to reinstate the primary despite calls to do so by both state Republican and Democratic party leaders. Democrats will hold a party-run primary on March 23.
Trump prevailed twice under Missouri’s old presidential primary system.
Idaho
Last year, Idaho lawmakers passed cost-cutting legislation that was intended to move all the state’s primaries to the same date in May — but the bill inadvertently eliminated the presidential primaries entirely. The Republican-led legislature considered holding a special session to reinstate the presidential primaries but failed to agree on a proposal in time, leaving both parties with presidential caucuses as the only option. The GOP presidential caucuses will be on Saturday, while the Democratic caucuses aren’t until May 23.
The last GOP caucuses in Idaho were in 2012, when about 40,000 of the state’s nearly 200,000 registered Republican voters showed up to select their preferred candidate.
For this year, all Republican voters who want to participate will have to attend in person. They will vote after hearing short speeches by the candidates or their representatives.
If one candidate gets more than 50% of the statewide votes, that candidate will win all the Idaho delegates. If none of the candidates gets more than 50% of the votes, then each candidate with at least 15% of the total votes will get a proportionate number of delegates.
The Idaho GOP will announce the results once all the votes are counted statewide.
Trump placed a distant second in the 2016 Idaho primary behind Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.
Associated Press writers Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho; Joey Cappelletti in Lansing, Michigan; and Summer Ballentine in Jefferson City, Missouri, contributed to this report.
Michigan
Michigan basketball isn’t invincible, and its first loss shows why
Dusty May talks Michigan basketball after 28-point win over Villanova
Dusty May talks Michigan basketball after 28-point win over Villanova on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025.
Michigan basketball’s first loss of the 2025-26 season – a 91-88 thriller on Saturday, Jan. 10 – was likely a surprise to most.
But U-M players and and coaches saw the seeds planted for the result over the past two weeks, with four consecutive games without the Wolverines feeling like they’d played up to their standard.
“The right team won,” Dusty May said after his team’s first loss.
Michigan led by 14 with 7:38 left in the first half, but let Wisconsin back into the game with a 20-7 run going into halftime. The run included three 3-pointers, part of the Badgers’ season-high 15 3s.
“Give Wisconsin credit,” May continued. “They came in here, took a punch early, they responded and went in at halftime with positive momentum. They came out in the second half and knocked us on our heels a little bit.
“They made plays; our plan, our coaching, our playing wasn’t up to our standard.”
It was similar to U-M’s game earlier in the week, when the Wolverines allowed Penn State to go on a 12-0 second-half run before escaping with a 74-72 victory in Happy Valley.
At Crisler Center, however, the bill came due for the Wolverines not going hard in practice – where U-M had done the work behind its 14-0 start to the season.
“To be honest, the only thing I’m disappointed in is when we started playing, competing at a high level, it looked different,” May said. “We can’t be a team, with what we’re playing for, that has two different levels of intensity.
“That’s what happened … but I don’t want to take anything away from Wisconsin. They came in here, they took it.”
‘They exposed some things’
One of Michigan’s few flaws is in dealing with stretch bigs. That’s especially apparent now after freshman Aleksas Bieliauskas drilled five 3-pointers, including four in less than three minutes of the second half.
Aday Mara is a fantastic rim protector, but he’s not built to move out to the arc; when bigs who can shoot are able to pull him away from the basket, it’s a problem.
“We changed our coverages, changed our personnel, we didn’t do a good enough job,” May said. “We worked three days on that. … We knew it was coming, you know it’s coming … When they make the first couple, there’s such an overreaction.
“They exposed some things with our plan and our team that we thought were going to be issues this year,”
The Wolverines began sticking the Badgers harder on the perimeter, fighting over screens instead of going under them. The change slowed Wisconsin’s 3-point shooting – the Badgers closed the game at just 3-for-10 beyond the arc after making 12 of their first 23 – but it also allowed more dribble-drive penetration, mostly by Nick Boyd.
He scored 22 against U-M and May, his coach at Florida Atlantic. That was second only to Wisconsin’s John Blackwell, who had 26 points – the third double-digit scoring game in four tries by the Birmingham Brother Rice alumnus against the school that passed on him.
“They did a good job of exploiting the mismatches and finding a way to get open,” said Nimari Burnett, who scored 10. “Something we’ll look at in film –we can take this lesson and apply it to other games.”
‘Processes have to improve’
Michigan solid on offense, at least, topping 80 points for the 13th time in 15 games.
Elliot Cadeau – who sat much of the first half in foul trouble – frequently thrived in one-on-one situations en route to 19 points, his second-best total this season. Morez Johnson Jr. missed just one shot and finished with 18 points.
But for the fourth game in a row, U-M shot under 33% on 3s, going 8-for-25 (32%) against Wisconsin.
“We’ve got to find some solutions to get better shots,” May said.
Shooting comes and goes, as May and Co. have tried to point out. Effort should not, though.
But on Saturday, Wisconsin got more second-chance points (15-8) and was virtually even in rebounding – U-M finished with a 32-30 edge, but Wisconsin prevailed, 15-11, in the second half.
Michigan won its first 14 games of the season in large part because of superior talent. While that’s a prerequisite for a deep March run, the grind behind the scenes is every bit as important.
Of Michigan’s three days of prep from Tuesday-Saturday, Cadeau and May said, only one was acceptable.
“Our processes have to improve, our practice habits, our day-to-day habits have to be at a championship level,” May said. “Or we’re simply going to rely on the other team not playing up to their standard, or our talent. That’s not a real healthy way to get through the Big Ten season.”
The Penn State win offered solace that when the going got tough, the Wolverines would find a way. Faltering against Wisconsin wiped away that illusion.
Michigan’s goals – a Big Ten title, a March Madness run – are all still attainable. But only if U-M feels this sting and plays with the same desire opponents are now bringing against the Wolverines, night in and night out.
Even in practice.
“It’s like a smack in our face,” Burnett said. “No team is going to go undefeated – obviously, we hoped to do it – but like I said, just need to learn from it.”
Tony Garcia is the Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
Michigan
What time is Michigan basketball’s game vs Wisconsin today? TV, stream
Michigan football coach Kyle Whittingham introduced to Crisler crowd
Michigan football coach Kyle Whittingham introduced to Crisler Center in Ann Arbor on Friday, Jan. 2, 2026.
Michigan basketball finally got tested last game for this first time in almost two months.
Ever since a tough win on the road at TCU on Nov. 14, the Wolverines have been absolutely steamrolling everyone on their schedule. But Penn State finally offered some resistance that Michigan just hasn’t been seeing.
In Michigan’s third true road game of the season, the Wolverines were pushed to the brink in University Park, Pennsylvania, as the Nittany Lions found a way to keep it close without their leading scorer, freshman Kayden Mingo, who was scratched just before the game.
Michigan led by as much as 15 in the second half against the Nittany Lions, but Penn State just kept chipping away. Ultimately it came down to a final shot for Penn State’s Freddie Dilione V, who seemingly lost track of the clock and was forced to jack up a prayer that didn’t go in. As they say, an ugly win is better than an ugly loss, especially for a Michigan team who has been nearly flawless in every other game.
On Saturday, the Wolverines will return to the friendly confines of the Crisler Center for an early afternoon tipoff against the Wisconsin Badgers (CBS, 1 p.m.) for a chance to get back to the dominant style they were playing before.
Here’s what you need to know for Michigan’s game against Wisconsin on Saturday:
What channel is Michigan basketball vs Wisconsin
Michigan basketball will face Wisconsin in a nationally televised game on CBS.
How to stream Michigan vs Wisconsin basketball
Michigan basketball vs Wisconsin start time today
- Date: Saturday, Jan. 10.
- Time: 1 p.m. ET.
- Where: Crisler Center, Ann Arbor.
Michigan basketball schedule 2025-26 next 5 games
Find the Wolverines’ full 2025-26 schedule.
- Saturday, Jan. 10: Wisconsin, 1 p.m. ET, CBS.
- Wednesday, Jan. 14: at Washington, 10:30 p.m. ET, Big Ten Network.
- Saturday, Jan. 17: at Oregon, 4 p.m. ET, NBC.
- Tuesday, Jan. 20: Indiana, 7 p.m. ET, Peacock.
- Friday, Jan. 23: Ohio State, 8 p.m., Fox.
Michigan vs Wisconsin prediction
Tony Garcia, Detroit Free Press: Morez Johnson Jr.’s early foul trouble against Penn State was a big factor in that close finish; as deep as U-M is, it does not have a replacement for his motor and ability to switch on defense. Presumably, that narrow win was a wakeup call for Michigan, and while it’s hard to expect the Wolverines to beat teams by 30 or 40 a night, this one could be lopsided by the end. The pick: U-M 92, Wisconsin 73.
Tony Garcia is the Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
Michigan
Butler WR transfer Braydon Alford commits to Michigan football
Butler wide receiver transfer Braydon Alford, the son of Michigan offensive run game coordinator and running backs coach Tony Alford, has committed to U-M under new head coach Kyle Whittingham, he announced on social media Friday evening.
The 5-foot-8, 175-pound Dublin, Ohio, native didn’t appear in any games in his two seasons at Butler and has three years of eligibility remaining.
From Alford’s bio while at Butler: “Set his school’s single-season receptions record with 90 catches during his senior year… Had 1,487 all-purpose yards that year and scored 10 touchdowns… Named First Team All-Conference, First Team All-District and Third-Team All-State as a senior… Team captain… Had an outstanding game against Hilliard Bradley in Week 5 which included 14 catches for 195 yards and three touchdowns.”
Alford entered the transfer portal earlier this week and quickly became a Michigan commit.
Whittingham took the Michigan job Dec. 26 and quickly built his staff. One of three holdovers on the group of assistant coaches was Tony Alford, who’s entering his third season in Ann Arbor. Whittingham had a previous connection with Tony Alford’s family.
“Tremendous football coach. I was blessed to have at Utah, his brother, Aaron Alford, before he passed away, worked for us for several years,” Whittingham said at his introductory press conference. “So I know the Alford family. Great family. Tony, I got a ton of respect for him and we’ll see how things work out in that direction.”
Alford was an unranked recruit out of Dublin (Ohio) Jerome.
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