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
Michigan beats Alabama 27-20 in overtime of College Football Playoff semifinal at Rose Bowl
PASADENA, Calif. — Blake Corum rushed for a 17-yard touchdown on the second snap of overtime, and top-seeded Michigan advanced to its first College Football Playoff championship game with a 27-20 victory over fourth-seeded Alabama in the Rose Bowl on Monday.
Michigan’s defense ended only the second overtime game in the 110 editions of the Rose Bowl when Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe was emphatically stopped for no gain when he attempted to sneak up the middle on fourth down from the Michigan 3.
Coach Jim Harbaugh’s Wolverines (14-0) will play for their school’s first national title since 1997 against Washington or Texas on Jan. 8 in Houston, but only after a late comeback and a hair-raising finish to the Granddaddy of Them All.
Roman Wilson made a 4-yard TD catch with 1:34 left in regulation for the Wolverines, who hadn’t scored in the second half until that gritty 75-yard drive led by J.J. McCarthy.
Corum then needed only two snaps to score in the first overtime period, breaking tackles and spinning wildly on his second carry into the end zone.
Milroe connected with Jermaine Burton at the Michigan 3 on third-and-goal in overtime, and Alabama leaned on its quarterback’s athleticism on the final play call — but Milroe ran straight into a Michigan defense that was waiting for him.
Kyusung Gong/AP
Jase McClellan rushed for 87 yards and two touchdowns for Alabama (12-2), which fell heartbreakingly short of the chance to play for Nick Saban’s seventh national title at the school. The Tide led 20-13 on Will Reichard’s 52-yard field goal with 4:41 to play, but their defense couldn’t preserve the lead.
McCarthy passed for 221 yards and three touchdowns for Michigan, earning the offensive player of the game award. Milroe passed for 116 yards and rushed for 63 for the Tide, whose 11-game winning streak ended.
Mark J. Terrill/AP
The Alabama defense also couldn’t step up at key moments to stop Corum, who caught an early TD pass and then rushed for 83 yards, capped by his overtime heroics. Corum has been at Michigan for three straight appearances in the CFP, but he barely played two years ago when the Wolverines were routed by Georgia, and he was injured when they were upset by TCU last year.
The Wolverines also survived a handful of potentially disastrous mistakes that undercut their long stretches of superiority in this matchup — including a muffed punt by Jake Thaw, who was tackled at the Michigan 1 with 43 seconds left in regulation and barely avoided what would have been one of the most spectacular safeties in football history.
Michigan is the sixth straight No. 1 seed to win its semifinal game in the CFP’s 10 years of existence.
Michigan is one win away from reaching the primary goal set by Harbaugh when he returned to his alma mater in 2015 after his meteoric coaching career flamed out with the 49ers. The former Wolverines quarterback was determined to restore his school to national prominence and dominance, but he won no Big Ten titles in his first six seasons amid frustration from a fan base that expected things to happen sooner.
Mark J. Terrill/AP
Michigan has been elite since 2021, winning three straight conference titles and advancing to three playoffs. The Wolverines lost their first two semifinals, but they’ve finally reached their sport’s biggest stage after their second consecutive unbeaten regular season.
And they did it this season with Harbaugh serving a pair of three-game suspensions — the second over allegations of sign-stealing and in-game scouting.
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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