The remainder of the bracket is going to be tough for the Michigan Wolverines, including Sunday’s tilt against the Tennessee Volunteers, but of the two options for the Elite Eight, this was the preferrable opponent. Analytics believe this squad is underseeded (No. 11 overall per Kenpom), but compared to the swarming defense of Iowa State, the Wolverines have to feel great about their chances of advancing to the Final Four.
Michigan
How To Watch: Michigan Basketball vs Tennessee in the Elite 8
The Vols lost four of their last six games heading into the NCAA Tournament, though were impressive against Miami (OH), Virginia, and Iowa State. Their defense is solid (11th) while the offense is productive (31st), perhaps making their No. 6 seed a little misleading. Still, Michigan is the better overall team here, and unfortunately the odds of a third straight year of losing to a No. 1 seed in the Elite Eight are quite high for Rick Barnes and company.
Elite Eight: No. 1 Michigan (34-3) vs. No. 6 Tennessee (25-11)
Date & Time: Sunday, March 29, 2:15 p.m. ET
Location: United Center, Chicago, IL
TV/Streaming: CBS
Oddly, this is the fourth Tournament meeting between these schools since 2010-11, with the prior three favoring the maize and blue. That first contest was a 30-point First Round blowout, followed by a narrow Michigan win in the 2013-14 Sweet Sixteen. The most recent edition was also a close one, with Hunter Dickinson and Eli Brooks each topping 20 points as the No. 11 Wolverines upset No. 3 Tennessee in the Second Round in 2021-22.
Tennessee 2PT Defense: 49.0% (63rd)
The most obvious path to victory for Michigan over Alabama was using its huge size advantage in the paint, yet both Aday Mara and Morez Johnson had games to forget. The bigs will get their chance for redemption on Sunday against a Tennessee defense that is much better than its SEC rival’s, yet is beatable down low. Weak hands and poor finishing will not work against this frontcourt, but the Wolverines have proven they can win physical battles all year.
As fun as March Roddy (Gayle) is, or the rapid emergence of Trey McKenney, Michigan will not win a national championship if it does not get substantial production from the Mara-Johnson duo. Enough others contributed against the Tide to still claim the win, and perhaps that could be possible again in the Elite Eight, but it would give a lot more confidence heading into the final weekend if these two could bounce back in a big way. The Vols have had issues fouling too, so being aggressive at the rim is a must.
Tennessee Offensive Rebounding: 45.1% (1st)
Yes, that is correct — Tennessee grabs nearly half of its own misses. With an effective field goal rate around 140th, this is less extreme than the Texas A&M gameplan last year, but surely no one will be caught sleeping after witnessing the Vols collect 53.3% (!!) of their opportunities against the Cyclones on Friday. Without basically any outside shooting, second-chance points are the only way this offense scores enough to keep it close.
However, since the Duke and Illinois games, the Wolverines have been pretty solid on the defensive glass and should feel capable of at least reducing the impact of Tennessee’s rebounding. The Michigan frontcourt can match up body-to-body, and this is another way Mara and Johnson can make huge contributions. Like Saint Louis and Alabama hitting threes, there will be frustrating stretches of elongated possessions, but the key is just getting enough rebounds to stop any torrent.
Tennessee Defensive 3PT Rate: 44.7% (33oth)
Few teams see more opposing three-point attempts than the Vols do, yet this rarely seems to burn them, as opponents connect on just 30.3% of their shots, which is 11th-best nationally. This resilience is going to be really tested by a Michigan offense that is making 47.3% of its threes in the Tournament thus far after a cold Big Ten Tournament. The touch could certainly cool off on Sunday, but is that a bet Tennessee really wants to take?
If the Wolverines can stay disciplined and keep taking the high-percentage looks, this should be a huge factor on Sunday. While I still would like to see the offense attack the paint, there are too many good shooters on the roster to not take advantage when the defense is passive. Should Barnes choose to start closing out on shooters, there will be paths open to the hoop. Though the metrics consider this a strong defense, it feels like there is an easy way Michigan blows this game open.
Tennessee Adj. Offense: 31st
As a whole, the Tennessee offense appears fine, but the analytics are actually kind of sour on most of the parts. Bad free throw shooting (286th) on modest attempts (103rd), too many turnovers (233rd), limited three-point attempts (329th), and a slow tempo (290th) make me wonder how anything actually happens aside from getting good second-chance looks on offensive rebounds.
Clearly that strategy has worked this year — and over the past two weekends — but the 24-point loss to Florida (with a 17.1% OReb rate) might tell the story of what happens against defenses with size. The best actual shooter is Ja’Kobi Gillespie, who has improved since his combined 6-for-22 effort in two games against Michigan last season, but aside from him and Nate Ament, there is little outside threat.
I do think there will be enough offensive rebounds and tough makes to avoid an instant blowout (though not off the table for the final score), and maybe the Vols’ three-point defense is real, but the ways Michigan can win are so much more numerous than the ways it can lose. Trust the better team to take care of business and move on to Indianapolis next weekend.
Lansing — Jocelyn Benson, the front runner for the Democratic Party’s nomination for governor, said she believes her work in eight years as secretary of state will help convince voters to promote her this fall.
On Sunday, during a convention in Detroit, Democrats will pick a new secretary of state nominee. And on Thursday, Benson’s campaign for governor submitted about 30,000 petition signatures to get her name on the Aug. 4 primary ballot.
Amid those key moments in the 2026 election cycle, Benson, a former law school dean, sat down Thursday afternoon for an interview with The Detroit News about her time as secretary of state.
“I think that’s what people are looking for: A government that saves them time, saves them money and makes their life easier,” Benson contended. “I’ve done that as secretary of state, and I’ll do that as governor.”
The following interview was edited for length and clarity.
Question: You just dropped off your signatures this weekend. The Democrats are going to be gathering to nominate a new person for secretary of state. I was just looking over your campaign promises from 2017, do you feel like you hit them?
Benson: I had two goals when I came into office: wait times down and voter turnout up. And we did both, and I’m really proud of that.
When I started, we did a strategic planning session every January, and during our first strategic planning session in 2019, we filled the whiteboard on every wall in the office. And in our most recent one, the final one, we had just sort of one, just one little to-do list item left, which was really gratifying. Because we have not just increased turnout, but we’ve transformed our elections, eliminated gerrymandering, implemented the state’s first-ever citizens redistricting commission, which was no easy task, and then also implemented a number of new election procedures and options, educated voters about them and took Michigan’s elections from being ranked 31st in the country to No. 2.
We also did that while reducing those wait times (in Secretary of State offices), transforming our customer service experience. … Wait times are consistently 20 minutes or less, which was my No. 1 campaign goal.
Q: What were some of the strategies you used to get the wait times down for people?
A: No. 1, we listened to our employees, and No. 2, we collected data about what wasn’t working. You can’t fix what you can’t measure. And No. 3, we actually went around the country and looked at what states that actually had low wait times were doing. There weren’t many, but there were a few. Indiana and Illinois, had some interesting things that they did, and we took best practices that were working in other states and replicated them here.
But that first piece was key, listening to our employees. Early on in the process, we brought everyone in, all the branch office directors. I was expecting a daylong retreat where we would be discussing ideas, and I sat down with the director of branch office services. He had a whole PowerPoint presentation that went through everything we needed to do, from filling 900 vacant positions that were just vacant and not filled, to creating internally this opportunity for people to schedule the visit ahead of time.
We didn’t pay someone else to build that. That was built by our employees.
Q: When you ran in 2018, one of the big things you were talking about was election security. Do you feel like you’ve achieved that: improving election security? And what do you think about more people probably having faith in the results of elections then than they do now?
A: I am really proud of the fact that in this era of misinformation, we were able to protect our elections and ensure they remained secure.
While withstanding this unprecedented scrutiny and an unprecedented level of frivolous lawsuits, sham legislative hearings and falsehoods spread about our elections in the eye of the storm, we not only met the moment, but we built a better election system through it. That’s evidenced by the fact that we now have choices on how to vote in our state, we’ve modernized how you can register to vote and have increased the registration numbers we have.
Q: If one of these current candidates for secretary of state came to you and said, “I believe that the election is secure and everything is fine, but obviously there’s a lot of voters who don’t. How do we improve that?” What would you say to them?
A: Transparency is our friend.
Q: Just continue to open the process up as much as possible?
A: Well, the facts are on our side. The process is secure. So one of the most important things we need to do first is just continue to give people the tools that they need to get their questions answered and work with folks across the aisle, like we worked with Sen. Ed McBroom in 2021 to invite them into the process as well as answer questions that they have, while also, of course, maintaining any necessary confidence or security about the information that we’re providing.
But the through line is just transparency.
Q: What do you say to some of your opponents who will say, “Yeah, you decreased wait times. But what about the campaign finance website?” It’s not functioning, as they would hope it would.
A: Well, it’s certainly better than what we’ve had in the past. I think it’s important to remember that when I first ran for office, one of the things I heard most on the trail was actually, when are you going to get rid of MERTS (the former campaign finance disclosure system)?
Q: But that’s from people who are on the back end of it?
A: Right. Yeah. So I didn’t want to leave office without taking on that behemoth, knowing that it wasn’t going to be a smooth process, but it’s a necessary one if we were actually going to have a more transparent system, which I would argue also is something that the next secretary of state really needs to lean into more: getting money out of politics. I’ll be an ally for that as governor.
But when it comes to MITN and that process, one, what it really underscores is that I’m not afraid to take on big behemoths that others, frankly, past secretaries of state, refused to do, because it was too hard. And it does invite criticism. Whenever you try to transform a massive system that’s broken, yes, there are going to be hiccups along the way.
Q: Do you think voters are interested in that message: “I’ve improved these systems. I’m in government. I’ve succeeded in government. I can make it work.” Or are they looking for someone to just change everything?
A: People see a broken system that needs fixing, and they know I have transformed and fixed a system that every single one of our residents has interacted with. The other day, I was picking up food for my son and husband, and walking out with bags of food, and this gentleman in a pickup truck pulled up next to me in the parking lot and said, “Excuse me, are you the secretary of state?”
I was like, “I am.” And he said, “You know, I’m not political or anything. But I just was driving down this road the other day and realized when I passed the secretary of state’s office that it’s been years since I’ve had to go in there. Thank you for everything you’ve done to make that possible for me.” And I said, “Yeah, now imagine if all of government worked that well.”
Q: Do you think all three of the Democratic candidates running for secretary of state would be a good secretary of state? I know you’re not endorsing.
A: I’m committed to working with whoever comes through the convention and making sure they’re prepared to build on what we’ve done and achieve even more success.
cmauger@detroitnews.com
Before-and-after images of homes on Black Lake near Onaway provide perspectives on how the community was affected by April flooding.
Snowmelt and rain have stressed dams and caused lakes to flood in northern Michigan.
The Cheboygan County Sheriff’s Office shared on social media photos and videos that the agency captured of Cheboygan County floods on Friday, April 17 from both the ground and air.
Deputies “observed a level of destruction that simply cannot be understood from ground level,” the sheriff’s office said in the post.
Google Maps images taken from two locations on Black Lake in 2024, compared with the Friday images, show how the floodwater has changed the landscape.
On North Black River Road and Taylor Road, the water has overflowed to North Black River Road.
In the 400 block of South Black River Road, water has also flooded homes and lakeside property.
“Black Lake, Black River, Cheboygan River, Burt Lake, Mullet Lake, the Sturgeon River − and nearly every waterway in the county have overflowed beyond their banks, swallowing docks, roads, yards, and in far too many cases, homes,” the sheriff’s office post said. “What should be familiar shorelines are now unrecognizable expanses of water.”
“Our hearts are with every family affected by this flooding,” Cheboygan County Sheriff Todd Ross said in the post. “We know many of you are facing significant damage to your homes and property, and the emotional toll that comes with it. Please know you are not alone. We are working around the clock with our partners to ensure safety, provide support, and begin the process of recovery. Stay strong, stay connected, and don’t hesitate to reach out for help, we will get through this together.”
Nearby, the UAW Black Lake Conference Center shared images on social media of floodwater threatening its Old Lodge.
The conference center is located at 2000 Maxon Road in Waverly Township.
The Cheboygan County Road Commission and the Cheboygan County Office of Emergency Management closed the bridge at Five Mile Point Road on Saturday, April 18 due to significant road washout in the area of South Black River Road and Red Bridge Road.
The sheriff’s office had encouraged residents in parts of the area to evacuate earlier in the week and said Saturday it had completed evacuation efforts on the west side of the lake.
TEXAS TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A 20-year-old Kalamazoo man is dead after crashing his vehicle into a tree Friday evening in Texas Township, according to Michigan State Police (MSP).
It happened on South 3rd Street and West PQ Avenue around 6:50 p.m., troopers said.
While he was driving in a no-passing zone, the Kalamazoo man swerved off the road to avoid an oncoming vehicle and subsequently crashed into the tree, according to MSP.
The 20-year-old died at the scene. A passenger was hurt, but police said their injuries were non-life threatening.
Troopers do not believe alcohol or drugs were a factor, and the two were reportedly wearing seatbelts.
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This incident remains under investigation by MSP.
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