Wolverines, Golden Gophers to Square Off Tuesday Night at Crisler Center

» Michigan returns to Ann Arbor to host Minnesota Tuesday night (Jan. 22) at Crisler Center.
» Prior to the start of the game, the Big Ten Network will host its basketball pregame show from Crisler.
» The Wolverines have won their last 18 games at Crisler Center.
» All Michigan players, staff and support staff will wear special MLK T-shirts at tonight's game to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
» Today's game marks the 10th straight sellout at Crisler Center.

NEXT GAME
Tuesday, Jan. 22 -- vs. Minnesota (Crisler Center), 7 p.m.

The fifth-ranked University of Michigan men's basketball team (17-1) returns to a sold-out Crisler Center for a Tuesday night (Jan. 22) match-up against Minnesota (14-4). The night will start with the BTN pregame show at 6 p.m., and tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. with Kevin Kugler and Robbie Hummel on the call.

A Little Bit About Minnesota

• Minnesota comes to Ann Arbor with a 14-4 overall record, including a 4-3 mark in Big Ten play. The Gophers travel to Crisler after a 65-64 win against Penn State on Saturday (Jan. 19).
• Minnesota has four players scoring in double figures, led by junior Amir Coffey at 15.7 points per game. Coffey adds 3.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists and a steal a game.
• Senior forward Jordan Murphy averages a double-double with his 14.6 points and 12.1 rebounds per game. Murphy (218) and freshman forward Daniel Oturu (133; 7.4 rpg) have accounted for 50 percent of the Gophers' total rebounds -- Murphy alone is 30 percent. Oturu adds 10.6 points per game.
• Senior guard Dupree McBrayer gives Minnesota four double-figure scorers with his 10.7 points per game. With 53 percent of his offense coming from long range, he is second on the team with 26 three-pointers. Freshman guard Gabe Kalscheur (9.7 ppg) leads the team with 37 three-pointers.
• Minnesota ranks 10th in the country in free throw attempts, having gone to the line 485 times this season. Murphy has a team-high 144 free throw attempts and is shooting 68.1 percent from the line. The Gophers are also second in the league with 13.0 offensive rebounds per game, while their 38.4 rebounds per game as a team rank fourth.
• Richard Pitino is in his sixth season as head coach at Minnesota. In his first season (2013-14) at Minnesota, he guided the Gophers to the NIT championship. He added Big Ten Coach of the Year honors in 2017.

The All-Time Series with the Gophers

• Tonight's game will be the 160th all-time meeting in the series.
• The Wolverines lead the all-time series, 93-66, having won the last two meetings and 11 of the last 12 games in the series.
• Today's match-up will be the first of two meetings between Michigan and Minnesota in the Big Ten regular season. U-M will play a return game in Minneapolis on Thursday, Feb. 21.
• U-M holds a 56-20 record in games played in Ann Arbor. The Wolverines have won the last five against the Gophers at Crisler Center.
• There have been seven overtime games with U-M holding the lead, 6-1. The last time there was an extra period game was a 76-73 Wolverine win at Crisler Center on Feb. 3, 2018.
• There have been 28 games in the series decided by three or fewer points, with U-M leading 19-9. The last time a game was decided by three points or fewer was a 76-73 Wolverine overtime win at Crisler Center on Feb. 3, 2018.
• U-M head coach John Beilein is 16-4 against Minnesota.

What an A-Maize-in 49 Weeks

• It was nearly a full calendar year -- 49 weeks to be exact. That was what the Wolverines were able to say during an amazing run that allowed them to win 31 games and talk only about a loss in the national title game.
• Before a 64-54 loss at Wisconsin (Jan. 19), U-M's went 31-1, with win streaks of 14 games and 17 games. The lone loss was in the 2018 national championship game against Villanova (April 2, 2018).
• The amazing streak started following a 61-52 loss at Northwestern (Feb. 6, 2018) in AllState Arena.
• Among U-M's 31 victories, 24 were by double figures and eight by 20-plus points.
• U-M's 17-0 record marked the second time under John Beilein the Wolverines had a 15-plus-game unbeaten streak to start a season.
• The other occurrence was during U-M's 2012-13 campaign, when the Wolverines got off to a then-program-best 16-0 start. That streak was stopped on Jan. 13 -- a 56-53 loss at No. 15 Ohio State when Trey Burke's potential game-tying three went halfway down and then rattled out. That season, U-M advanced to the national title game before falling to Louisville.

There is No Place Like Home

• Michigan has won its last 18 games at Crisler Center, which is currently the third-best stretch in program history.
• During a stretch of games spanning two seasons -- 1984-85 to 1985-86 -- the Wolverines posted a program-best 24 straight home wins at.
• That run topped the previous-best mark of 22 straight spanning the 1975-76 and 1976-77 seasons. The stretch included U-M's second undefeated (14-0) season at Crisler, in 1976-77. For record keeping the only other undefeated home season was a 12-0 record in 1973-74.

More Home Cooking Notes

• The Wolverines are 30-1 in their last 31 games at Crisler Center.
• The lone home setback was a 70-69 win by No. 5/7 Purdue (Jan. 9, 2018) after the Boilermakers' Isaac Haas made a free throw with four seconds left to defeat the Wolverines.
• Michigan is 42-4 over the last three seasons at Crisler Center. The four losses are to Virginia Tech (73-70, Nov. 30, 2016) in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge; Maryland (77-70, Jan. 7, 2017); Ohio State (70-66, Feb. 4, 2017) and Purdue (70-69, Jan. 9, 2018). The losses combine for just a -3.7 average margin of defeat.
• Michigan has 20 straight victories against non-conference opponents at Crisler Center. The last non-conference home loss was a 73-70 setback against Virginia Tech (Nov. 30, 2016) in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge -- two seasons ago.

The Oh-io Boys

• Over the last three games, U-M's Ohio Boys -- Zavier Simpson (Lima, Ohio) and Jon Teske (Medina, Ohio) -- have taken over for the Wolverines.
• In the last three games Simpson has averaged 17.0 points, 6.7 rebounds, 6.0 assists and 2.3 steals per game. He has shot 47.6 percent from the field (20-for-42) and 47 percent (8-for-17) on three-pointers. He added his first career 20-plus-point game with 24 against Northwestern (Jan. 10) with a career-best five three-pointers as well as adding his second double-double of the season with 11 rebounds and 10 rebounds at Wisconsin (Jan. 19).
• In the last three games Teske has averaged 15.0 points, 9.6 rebounds and 3.3 blocks per game. He has shot 58.6 percent from the field (17-for-29) and 50.0 percent (6-for-12) on three-pointers. He added two double-doubles, at Illinois (13 points, 11 rebounds) and Northwestern (17 points, 11 rebounds; Jan. 13), and two road games with four blocks -- at Illinois and at Wisconsin.
• Simpson has gone 8-for-17 over his last three games from long range, including a career-best five against Northwestern (Jan. 13). Those eight three-pointers nearly equal his season total of his 15 previous games (9-for-34, .264). He is now 17-for-51 on the season.
• With his 11 points and 10 rebounds at Wisconsin (Jan. 19), Simpson is now tied for the team lead for double-doubles with two. Who is he tied with? Teske.

Up Next

Friday, Jan. 25 -- at Indiana (Bloomington, Ind.), 6:30 p.m. (TV: FS1)