– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN — There’s so much that’s different surrounding the Michigan Wolverines’ men’s basketball team, but at least what remains the same is that, until further notice, the program is the reigning national champion. And they got to honor that recent past while invoking those memories and great play in the present.
Roddy Gayle Jr. and Trey McKenney, holdovers from last year’s champions, each scored 17 points as No. 16 Michigan opened up the season with an 84-68 win over in-state school Oakland inside Crisler Center on Monday evening. Tennessee transfer J.P. Estrella added 15 points and 12 rebounds, and fellow forward and highly-touted freshman Quinn Costello added 13 points off the bench.
The game also marked the Michigan head-coaching debut of Mike Boynton, who replaced Dusty May after the latter surprisingly left Ann Arbor to become the head coach of the Dallas Mavericks. Also gone from the team are three players who became lottery picks in this June’s NBA Draft: Morez Johnson Jr., Yaxel Lendeborg and Aday Mara.
“We’re probably not as deep as we were at this point last year,” Boynton said. “We have a solid core and we can play nine comfortably.”
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Monday evening’s game, with photos taken by ALOST staff photographer Aaron J. Thornton. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page, Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 20 pictures in total.
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