Social Media Day, Illinois to Come to Crisler for Saturday Matinee

» Michigan enters Saturday's game riding a six-game winning streak.
» The Wolverines have won 12 of the last 14 meetings against Illinois, including the last four at Crisler
» With their expected starts, seniors Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman and Duncan Robinson will play in their 115th and 100th straight games, respectively.
» U-M hosts its second-annual Social Media Day throughout the game which will feature several special social media campaigns as well as special giveaways and prizes.

THIS WEEK
Tuesday, Jan. 2 -- at Iowa, W (75-68) -- [Recap]
Saturday, Jan. 6 -- Illinois, noon (Big Ten Network)

The University of Michigan men's basketball team (13-3; 2-1 B1G) will return to the friendly confines of Crisler Center to host Illinois (10-6; 0-3 B1G) on Saturday (Jan. 6). The game will feature U-M's second-annual Social Media Day. Tipoff is scheduled for noon with the game broadcast on Big Ten Network.

THE SERIES WITH ILLINOIS
• Saturday's game marks the 171st all-time meeting and will be the only regular-season meeting this season. U-M trails in the overall series, 87-83.
• Michigan holds a 51-28 record in games played in Ann Arbor, including a current four-game win streak. Illinois' last win at Crisler Center was a 51-44 victory on Feb. 23, 2010.
• U-M head coach John Beilein is 14-7 against Illinois. After starting 2-5 against the Illini, Beilein and his Wolverines have won 12 of the last 14 meetings.
• Michigan and Illinois met three times last season. U-M dropped an 85-69 decision in Champaign before taking a 66-57 victory in Ann Arbor to split the regular season. The third matchup was in the Big Ten Tournament opening round, where U-M made headlines having to wear practice jerseys following a plane crash en route to the championship. The Wolverines used a 71-51 victory to win four games in four days to claim the title.

A LITTLE ABOUT THE ILLINI
• With Saturday's game, Illinois (10-6; 0-3 B1G) has played three of its first four Big Ten games on the road. The Illini lost back-to-back overtime games at Northwestern (72-68) and vs. Maryland (92-91) in early December before dropping a 77-67 game at Minnesota.
• Illinois is led by three players in double figures -- redshirt junior forward Leron Black (14.7 ppg), redshirt junior forward Michael Finke (11.1 ppg) and junior guard Aaron Jordan (10.6 ppg).
• Black (5.8 rebounds per game) and Finke (5.7 rpg) are also 1-2 in rebounding for the Illini, while Jordan leads the team with 32 three-pointers (55.2 percent from deep) with Finke second with 19.
• Freshman guard Trent Frazier comes off the bench to score 9.7 points per game and is second with 2.5 assists per contest.
• Illinois head coach Brad Underwood is in his first season with the Illini after serving one year at Oklahoma State and three years at Stephen F. Austin. In fact, U-M defeated Underwood's OSU Cowboys, 92-91, in the first round of the 2017 NCAA Tournament.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
• Michigan has won its last six straight games. The streak is the longest in the regular season since the 2015-16 season, during which U-M won its last four non-conference games and first two Big Ten games. The Wolverines closed last season winning seven of its final eight games.
• With a team-best 55 assists (3.4 apg), Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman is second nationally with a 6.11 assist-to-turnover ratio. He has just nine total turnovers.
• With 26 assists and just four turnovers in his last five games, Zavier Simpson is now second on U-M with 49 assists (3.0 per game) and ranks 23rd nationally with a 3.06 assist-to-turnover ratio.

ANOTHER MILESTONE REACHED FOR COACH B
• Already U-M's all-time winningest coach with 228 victories, John Beilein became just the second Wolverine coach to reach 100 Big Ten wins following Tuesday's (Jan. 2) 75-68 win at Iowa. Beilein is chasing Johnny Orr's mark of 120 for the all-time conference record at U-M.
• Additionally, Beilein became the 21st coach in Big Ten history to reach 100 wins. Currently, the Big Ten has two other coaches with 100-plus conference wins -- Michigan State's Tom Izzo (258, 23 seasons) and Purdue's Matt Painter (129, 13 seasons).

HOW ABOUT THIS
• After going 1-for-6 vs. Detroit Mercy, scoring just two points, Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman made a switch to his pink colored Jordan 31s and has been on fire the last three games. He has scored in double figures in each game including a season-best 20 against Jacksonville. He has shot 65.3 percent from the field (17-for-23) and 60 percent from deep (9-for-15). He wore the pink shoes during last season's postseason run.
• Despite a career-best 15 points and four steals in the overtime win against UCLA (Dec. 9), Zavier Simpson did not record an assist in that game. Since that game, he has posted 26 assists (5.2 apg) over his next five games -- with just four turnovers. That tally is more than half of his total 49 on the season. In fact, Simpson posted two games with seven assists with zero turnovers during the stretch -- vs. Detroit Mercy and at Iowa.