Michigan
Michigan basketball enters ‘self work’ week between marquee matchups
Belleville’s Elijah Dotson gives speech after signing with Michigan
On national signing day, Belleville’s Elijah Dotson speaks to an excited crowd after signing with Michigan football.
There’s nothing wrong with self-improvement and that’s exactly what this week is all about for Michigan basketball.
The No. 14 Wolverines (8-2, 2-0 Big Ten) have gotten off to a largely impressive start in the Dusty May era, but their seven-game winning streak was snapped on Tuesday in the bright lights of Madison Square Garden.
U-M held a 15-point first half lead before it got bludgeoned by 33 points in the middle of the game. It then chipped away at its 18-point deficit in the final nine minutes and had multiple looks in the final 60 seconds to tie or take the lead, but none fell and Michigan lost to Arkansas, 89-87.
It was U-M’s second neutral site loss to a potential tournament team from a Power Four conference by a single bucket (U-M lost 72-70 to Wake Forest last month). While neither loss in a vacuum is anything to freak out about, the common themes causing Michigan problems throughout the contests are becoming perfectly plain.
“I think you know the answer to that,” May laughed Friday morning when asked about his points of emphasis. “Two things are keeping you from being your absolute best, so we’re trying to be creative fixing those things.
“Attacking them in film, attacking them in individual work, attacking them in team concepts. Full speed ahead, everything we have in the tank to fix these things.”
Michigan’s next opponent is No. 17 Oklahoma (9-0) next Wednesday at the Jordan Invitational in Charlotte.
Get more shots, limit more shots
Stop us if you’ve heard this before, but U-M is trying to cut down its turnovers.
If it sounds repetitive, it’s only because it is, because when Michigan shoots the ball, it’s simply elite.
May’s group is No. 7 in the country in 2-point shooting (61.0%) and No. 84 in the country from behind the arc (35.9%) according to KenPom. The problem is it’s only shooting the ball on just more than 78% of its possessions because it ranks No. 334 out of 355 times, turning the the ball over on 21. 4% of its possessions.
The other glaring issue, U-M is still winning on the boards. The Wolverines are rated No. 34 in the country in offensive rebounding rate (36.2% of missed shots) but are giving up too many second chances on the other end, allowing opponents to grab 32.6% of their misses, good for No. 276 in the nation.
“Those are exactly the two things,” forward Will Tschetter said. “We looked at KenPom, we’re an elite team in almost every facet. … We watched every single turnover we had in that game and how we can fix it, watched every single board we didn’t grab defensively and how we could have fixed that. Then emphasize that to a ‘T’ during practice.”
Tschetter and Nimari Burnett, the Wolverines two main holdovers from the previous regime, say that the current staff puts a greater emphasis on analytics than the previous one.
Its why May and company can live with some of the aggressive turnovers on outlets up court, or when someone is trying to make the extra pass. But when there’s a sloppy live ball turnover that results in a pick-six?
Well that needs to stop immediately.
“This gives us a few days to spend on us,” May said of U-M’s eight day break between games, the longest stretch of the season. “We needed this week of practice, even though our guys are busy outside of this (with finals) we needed this to be able to really put a lot of teeth into fixing the things that need to be fixed.”
‘Same level of urgency’
Michigan has held double-digit leads at some point in just about every game.
It did against Wisconsin, Iowa and Arkansas, yet in all three of those games Michigan allowed the opponent to get back within one possession or take the lead. Twice, U-M lived to tell the tale. The third time was not the charm.
“We have to stay focused longer, we have to continue to fight when we have the lead,” May said. “With the same level of urgency.”
The good news is all the individual pieces appear to be there. Danny Wolf comes off a near triple-double and is looking like a Big Ten Player of the Year candidate. After a slow start, Vlad Goldin is averaging 20 points and 7.5 rebounds over the past four games. Roddy Gayle Jr. and Tre Donaldson are both averaging 12 points per game and U-M’s bench whether it’s Will Tschetter or Sam Walters has shooters and energy to spare.
However, even with that, Michigan has allowed more 10-0 run than any other team in the country. Much of that happens because of giveaways and not securing boards.
“I know at home the magic formula is the timeout,” May said. “We have to play basketball, can’t turn it over, cant throw the pick-sixes that lead to easy baskets, those are energizer plays. So yeah, the pace we play at, the style we play, we’re succeptible to runs but we’re also capable of stretching leads.
“There’s a give and take with every style of play.”
Ten games into the season, the style of play U-M is employing does not seem to be a problem. Execution at times, is lacking. But part of that is still to be expected as a group that hasn’t been together yet as a complete unit for even six months has navigated a rather difficult schedule with few blemishes.
May is pleased, but not exuberant, about where his team is. He’s said multiple times this year that he could probably plan a little bit better for today, but that it wouldn’t prepare his teams as well for the long run. It’s a fine balance between tweaking playing rotations, emphasizing points of weakness and keeping the momentum all moving forwards.
But the Wolverines have done that 10 games into 2024-25. Now, in self improvement week, they want to take another step.
“We do respond to failure pretty well,” May said of what he’s learned of this group early. “Wake Forest, we came back with the mindset of being eager to fix what needed to be fixed. It seems like after our second loss, we’re in the same mindset.”
Tony Garcia is the Michigan Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
For much of April, showers and melting snow has swamped Michigan, flooding homes, businesses, cottages, roadways; threatening and destroying infrastructure, including dams, and forcing what is likely hundreds of Michiganders to evacuate.
The unusual weather put the entire state under a flood watch.
It’s not over.
To help, the state’s Emergency Operations Center — which was activated on April 10, along with the governor’s state of emergency declaration — created a digital map identifying shelters and damaged areas.
There also is a livestream of the Cheboygan Lock and Dam Complex.
As of Monday morning, the water level at the dam had dropped slightly, and was less than 8 inches below the top, which is still a threat to both the community in the event of a spillover — or structural failure.
The map, which the emergency center is calling a dashboard, shows warming and cooling centers and where people can get food. It tracks where the tornadoes touched down, and the roadways that are under water, were eroded away and are completely washed out.
The emergency center also is providing more information on its website on how to ask for help, what state and federal assistance might be available, and how to get emergency email alerts from the State Police.
Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com
Detroit — Michigan Democrats rallied their largest group of delegates in the party’s history at a state convention Sunday, even as they attempted to mend divisions that emerged during the Israel-Gaza war.
Delegates to the Michigan Democratic Party’s endorsement on Sunday elected a slate of largely progressive candidates, picking Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II as their nominee for secretary of state, Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit as the nominee for attorney general and unseating University of Michigan incumbent Regent Jordan Acker in favor of Dearborn attorney Amir Makled.
Gilchrist will face off in November against the Republican nominee, Macomb County Clerk Anthony Forlini, while Savit will compete against the GOP nominee for attorney general, Eaton County Prosecutor Doug Lloyd, as well as a handful of third-party candidates.
About 7,252 delegates participated in Sunday’s convention at Huntington Place in Detroit, a record for the party, Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Curtis Hertel said.
The state Democratic Party declined Sunday to disclose the vote totals for its nominees at the convention, which is held every four years for party activists to pick nominees for every statewide office except governor and U.S. Senate in lieu of a primary election.
The chosen nominees come as the state approaches massive midterm elections, in which every statewide seat is up for grabs in the November election, as well as the 148 seats in the state House and Senate, where Democrats hope to capture a majority.
In caucus rooms at Huntington Place, Democratic leaders urged unity behind messages of affordable health care, accessible housing, opposition to President Donald Trump’s executive actions and a commitment to sweeping statewide seats in November. There was also recognition, in some meeting rooms on Sunday, of the issues that divided the party in 2024 amid protests of the Biden administration’s support of Israel in the Israel-Gaza war, and the need to fully mend those divisions in advance of the Nov. 3 election.
During the convention program on Sunday, the Israel-Gaza conflict appeared to remain a sensitive issue among some convention-goers. Protesters shouted repeatedly for a point of order, with one holding a sign that said: “Put the Palestine human rights resolution back on the agenda.” And the loudest booing, by far, occurred when U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens and Acker, both pro-Israel candidates, were announced on stage in their respective U.S. Senate and Board of Regents races.
Malinda Salameh was among those booing at Huntington Place, in part to protest candidates’ support from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). The 31-year-old UM alumnus registered too late to be a delegate on Sunday, but attended as a guest and intends to vote in the U.S. Senate primary. Stevens has long been aligned with AIPAC, while her two Democratic primary rivals, physician Abdul El-Sayed and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, have sworn off AIPAC’s campaign cash.
“Unfortunately, they need to understand that we as people cannot stand for this anymore,” Salameh said. “We don’t want any foreign interests messing with our politics. We want money out of politics. And I think that people are sad because they’re not being heard.”
During Acker’s nomination speech, as crowds booed, Wayne County Commissioner Jonathan Kinloch warned that delegates were not learning from the party’s 2024 electoral losses.
“There’s one thing that November 2024 should have taught us, is that the enemy is not in this room,” Kinloch said.
In caucuses, Democrats reckon with a divide
Abbas Alawieh, a cofounder of the Uncommitted National Movement, active in the 2024 election, told delegates, while campaigning for a state Senate seat Sunday morning, that he remained determined to ensure Arab American and Downriver communities are represented within the party.
He told The Detroit News Sunday that the party had done a good job over the past two years in making more room for all members. The record attendance, he said, is proof the Michigan Democratic Party is “trying to be the big tent party and we’ve got to continue growing that.”
“It’s clear that anti-war voters of all stripes, including Arab Americans in Michigan, are going to be critical to our path forward as Democrats,” Alawieh said. “As Democrats, we have to be proactive about reaching out to disaffected voters and voters that we’ve lost to the Republican party.”
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, pushed delegates to ask candidates seeking their vote real questions about actions to combat neighborhood pollution or their stances on federal actions in the Middle East. Pushing for those discussions among candidates will ultimately help improve the party, she said.
“We’re not anti-Democratic Party,” Tlaib said. “We’re trying to make the Democratic Party better.”
El-Sayed, a Muslim Democrat running for U.S. Senate, told members of the party’s Jewish Caucus that he would focus on issues affecting all communities, including allying against “anti-religious bigotry.”
“A lot of folks want us to pay attention to things that we might disagree on happening 6,000 miles away rather than reminding us about the things we agree on happening right here in our state,” El-Sayed said.
Regent candidates debate ‘elephant in the room’
Earlier in the day, the state party’s Jewish Caucus also heard from candidates who expressed a commitment to maintaining a place within the party for Jewish candidates and voters.
Acker, a Jewish Democrat fighting to retain his seat on the University of Michigan Board of Regents, and his fellow incumbent Paul Brown argued Acker had been targeted in his role as regent and in the nomination race. Brown called it the “elephant in the room”
Acker and Brown were running to retain their seats against Makled, a Dearborn attorney who represented several students who faced charges after protests calling on UM to divest from weapons manufacturing and Israel.
Brown argued that Acker had borne the brunt of attacks during the campus unrest and the nomination campaign.
“There’s one difference between Jordan and I,” Brown told members of the Jewish Caucus, “and that is, Jordan is Jewish, and I am not.”
Acker, a personal injury lawyer, said he wouldn’t be cowed by efforts to oust him from the board and credited Jewish Democrats with being significant leaders in civil rights fights over the decades.
“We have a message that we can send today, that we will not be pushed out of this coalition,” Acker said.
Makled, for his part, encouraged members of the Arab American Caucus also to hold their ground within the party.
“We want to make sure this electorate, this convention is giving an image of unity to the Democratic Party, that we’re collectively trying to push the better foot forward, but we’re also not afraid to stand up and speak for our issues as Arab Americans,” Makled said.
The contest between Makled and Acker was particularly heated.
Makled was criticized for reposting, and later deleting, praise for Hezbollah and antisemitic remarks on his social media account, deleted posts.
And The Guardian on Friday reported that Acker appeared to have made obscene sexual comments about a Democratic party strategist and lewd comments about a female U-M student in Slack messages.
When asked Simday about the messages by The News, Acker said the allegations were “ridiculous” and “fake.”
Acker’s attorney, Ethan Holtz, later sent a statement to The News alleging Acker “has never been on Slack” and that the messages contained elements that appeared to be “doctored.”
eleblanc@detroitnews.com
Emergency responders navigate Black Lake looking to rescue flood victims
Officers from U.S. Customs and Border Protection were on Black Lake looking for flood victims April 17, 2026.
The Cheboygan River level remained elevated Sunday as forecasters continued to issue fresh warnings about flooding in the region, though measurements at the dam were trending gradually downward.
The river was 7.56 inches below the top of the dam as of 12:45 p.m. Sunday, about a quarter of an inch below the prior measurement taken at 8:30 a.m., according to Michigan State Police. Levels had fluctuated around the seven-inch range below the dam’s top late Friday and Saturday after surging substantially higher earlier in the week.
State officials alerted the public about the emergency at the Cheboygan Lock and Dam Complex on April 10 when the river was 18 inches below the dam’s top. It then fell 2 inches to 20 inches below cresting on Saturday before starting five consecutive days of rising levels, raising concerns over the potential for a major flood disaster downstream in and around the city of Cheboygan.
Scattered snow showers are possible in Cheboygan and other parts of the northern Lower Peninsula on Sunday and into Sunday night, according to the National Weather Service. Much of the remainder of the week is expected to be sunny.
The weather agency on Sunday morning posted a flood warning for Cheboygan and Emmet counties that’s in effect until 8 p.m. Tuesday. “Expect many areas of slow moving or standing water,” it said.
People should stay away from flooded roads to avoid being swept away, the agency said, adding that “river banks and culverts can become unstable and unsafe.”
The Cheboygan County Sheriff’s Office also warned of “significant debris” flowing through local waterways and urged residents to stay away. The sheriff listed on its Facebook page more than a dozen road closures as of Sunday.
The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development urged residents Sunday to keep animals and farm equipment safe. It said livestock should be moved to higher ground, and utilities for lower-lying farm building should be switched off. Building doors and windows should be left partially open to “equalize pressure and help prevent buildings from shifting.”
The agency also broadly warned about the dangers of floodwater, given that it can contain harmful bacteria, sewage, toxic chemicals and debris. Pets should be kept way, the MDARD said. And all food and utensils should be kept away from it.
Michigan State Police scheduled a meeting at 6 p.m. Sunday to provide the public an update on the Cheboygan Lock and Dam Complex situation. It will take place at the Cheboygan Opera House, 403 North Huran St., in Cheboygan. Residents can also join remotely via Zoom, with details on the agency’s social media pages.
lramseth@detroitnews.com
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