Michigan

USA Olympians lead Michigan gymnastics to fifth straight Big Ten title

Published

8 months ago

April 6, 2025

USA Olympians lead Michigan gymnastics to fifth straight Big Ten title

Michigan’s men’s gymnastics team continues to have a stranglehold on the Big Ten.

The third-ranked Wolverines won their fifth consecutive conference championship on Friday at Crisler Center, finishing with a score of 330.750, their second-highest team score of the season.

The five straight titles is the most by the program since it won six straight from 1961-66. Penn State (323.850) and Nebraska (322.850) finished in second and third, respectively.

It was the two USA Olympians leading the way for Michigan. Junior Fred Richard was the all-around Big Ten champion for a third straight year, becoming the first Wolverine to accomplish the feat since Rick McCurdy from 1969-71. Richard also placed first in the high bar with a score of 14.100.

Michigan graduate student Paul Juda took second in the all-around and finished first in floor exercise (14.250). Both he and Richard won bronze with the United States at the 2024 Olympics.

The Wolverines captured the title by placing first in four of the six events: pommel horse, vault, parallel bars and high bar.

In Saturday’s Big Ten event finals at Crisler, Michigan’s Evgeny Siminiuc won gold on the high bar and silver on the parallel bars. Yuan Xiao was named Coach of the Year for the fourth straight year and Richard was named Gymnast of the Championships for the third consecutive season.

Michigan returns to competition April 18-19 at the 2025 NCAA Championships in Ann Arbor.

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Michigan

Michigan basketball enters Players Era tourney with ‘growth mindset’

Published

3 hours ago

November 24, 2025

Press Room

Michigan basketball enters Players Era tourney with ‘growth mindset’

Four games into the 2025-26 season, Michigan basketball remains unblemished.

The No. 6 Wolverines (4-0) haven’t always looked flawless, but they’ve found ways to get wins against different styles. A zone team (Oakland), a pair of Power Four opponents (Wake Forest and TCU) and most recently a pesky mid-major (Middle Tennessee State) have all provided different tests.

The slate gets even harder this week when Michigan travels to Las Vegas for the Players Era Festival men’s championship tournament, featuring 18 teams – 11 of which are in the top 50 of KenPom entering the event. So, what are coach Dusty May’s goals entering this type of environment?

“Hope for some vitamin D, hope we stay healthy and hope these three games in three days show us what we need to do or continue to do better to win the Big Ten Tournament,” he said. “I know some coaches or programs don’t value as much (the tournament). … but we want to be in position to compete for it.

“So three games in three days gives us an opportunity to prepare like that, to take care of our bodies and prioritize the next game immediately.”

Michigan won the Big Ten Tournament last season and May clearly is already thinking ahead. That said, it’s not the only goal the Wolverines have in the desert. Michigan has struggled to get its 3-point shooting going, hitting below 33% in each of its past three games and 20% or worse in two of them.

The tests don’t get easier for U-M this week, facing San Diego State on Monday, Nov. 24 (10:30 p.m., TruTV) which is No. 19 nationally in defense per KenPom and Auburn the following night (8:30 p.m., TNT), which is No. 36.

It’s unclear who the Wolverines will play for their third game, which could be either Wednesday or Thursday, and depends on how the first two go. Either way, with three games in 72 hours, there’s a chance Michigan will go a bit deeper into its bench, which could include some time for sharp shooting freshman Winters Grady.

“I could see us in the near future going with a little bit longer, deeper rotation,” May said.

Michigan won the Fort Myers Tip-Off a year ago during feast week, which served as a spring board for a 5-0 start to Big Ten play and helped them figure out their Danny Wolf-led identity.

Michigan is still figuring out its rotations this year, as far as lineup combinations, minute allocations and assessing which pairings lead to certain outcomes on each side of the court. May has said that he’s pleased with his team’s start in some ways, namely the toughness.

“Nothing gives me confidence we’re going to pick up a few quality wins other than we have a really good team, we’re capable of playing really good basketball,” May said following his team’s 84-61 win over MTSU. “I haven’t watched San Diego State, I’ve watched Auburn. Obviously we’re very familiar with them, they sent us home last year.

“The confidence I have to go get a couple wins is simply because we have a really good staff and really good players. Now it’s the time to turn the page and start studying what we need to do.”

What U-M needs to do is protect the ball better. Its turned the ball over 56 times the past three games and SDSU is No. 17 in the country, forcing turnovers on 23.8% of opponents possessions.

The Aztecs are deep, with their bench playing 43.4% of all minutes. Auburn, meanwhile, is run-and-gun team. They rarely turn it over (No. 24 nationally), shoot well inside the arc (62.4%, No. 24) and do so because they get so many high-percentage looks on putbacks (44.0% offensive rebounding rate, No. 10).

“We’ve got to be able to learn on the fly where we don’t have time to practice in between – we go straight from a film session, walk through and be able to apply things,” May said. “That’s the secret sauce of elite teams. So hopefully we’ll see us doing that on the fly.”

Should U-M win the tournament, it would be a positive on multiple levels, most notably some Quad 1 wins for the resume.

But the staff has been around the sport long enough to know the week will not make or break the season one way or the other.

“We are 100% a growth mindset program. We need to be better (when we return) next week than we are today,” May said. “We need to continue to learn more about our team and whether we win or we lose, we’re not going to be too high or too low because our season is long and we have a high, high ceiling.”

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.

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Michigan Football true freshman burns redshirt vs Maryland Terrapins

Published

21 hours ago

November 23, 2025

Press Room

Michigan Football true freshman burns redshirt vs Maryland Terrapins

The Michigan Wolverines took care of business against the Maryland Terrapins on Saturday, 45-20. This team is one of the youngest in the Big Ten, and even more young guys had a chance to play in this one.

Despite the return of Cole Sullivan, linebacker Nathaniel Owusu-Boateng still got in the game and burned his redshirt in College Park.

Here is where the freshmen stand 11 games into the season. An asterisk (*) indicates they saw playing time against Maryland:

Once again, wide receiver Andrew Marsh stood out as a key component of Michigan’s offense, and now special teams. He finished the day with 147 all-purpose yards. He had one long return against Maryland for 39 yards that set Michigan up nicely late in the game.

His quarterback, Bryce Underwood, had a nice day, too. He was 16-of-23 with two touchdowns and no interceptions. On the ground, Underwood had eight carries for 20 yards. Running back Jasper Parker got into the end zone and had eight carries for 23 yards.

We also saw some of the freshmen offensive linemen, with Ty Haywood (left tackle) and Avery Gach (special teams) earning some garbage time snaps in this one.

Without Ernest Hausmann, we saw more plays from some of the younger linebackers. Chase Taylor had a crucial heads-up play on Maryland’s onside kick, and he also had one tackle. Edge rusher Nate Marshall, defensive back Jordan Young, defensive back Elijah Dotson, and the aforementioned Owusu-Boateng all ended up on the stat sheet at the end of the day.

Michigan has just one game left this season, The Game in Ann Arbor. Michigan will have a chance to win five straight games against the Buckeyes. While we’re waiting to hear about some crucial injuries ahead of the matchup against the Buckeyes, Michigan will likely still rotate these young players on the offense. We’ll just have to wait until Saturday to see if they’re still on the field for the same amount of snaps.

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