3 takeaways from Michigan Basketball’s loss to UConn

· Yahoo Sports

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - NOVEMBER 06: Trey McKenney #1 of the Michigan Wolverines attempts a three-point basket against Junior County #0 of the UConn Huskies during the first half at The TD Garden on November 06, 2026 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Brian Fluharty/Getty Images) | Getty Images

In a rematch of April’s National Championship Game, the Michigan Wolverines traveled to Boston, Massachusetts — because this is, unfortunately, college sports these days — to meet with the UConn Huskies for an early-season non-conference bout.

Things didn’t exactly go the way they went seven months ago in Indianapolis, as Michigan suffered its first loss of the season, 85-77. Consider the score knotted up at 1-1, since the women’s team beat Hall-of-Fame coach Geno Auriemma and the No. 2 UConn Huskies at Crisler Center on Thursday night.

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Here are three takeaways from this matchup.

Perimeter offense and defense were not even close to being good enough

A major reason the Wolverines lost the three games they did last season was because they either gave up a bunch of three-point shots or didn’t make enough of their own. That was especially true in the first loss of the season to Wisconsin, which made 15 three-pointers in the 91-88 upset at Crisler Center.

I think you know where I’m going with this — Michigan missed a ton of perimeter shots while giving up a ton of them to UConn and ultimately paid the price.

UConn came out of the gates hot, with its first shot of the night being a made three-pointer by sophomore guard Braylon Mullins. Mullins then made two of his next three shots, with both them being threes. Silas Demary Jr. also contributed a pair of three-pointers early on.

At the halfway point of the first half, the Huskies only had nine shots converted, but five of them were from beyond the arc. UConn was up seven points at that point, 23-16, in large part because of the outside shots that were going down.

Meanwhile, the Wolverines couldn’t hit anything from downtown, a big reason they were down 13 points at the break. The Huskies were 6-of-14 from three at halftime, while Michigan made just one three.

UConn went 9-22 from three for the game, while Michigan was 7-28. Things were clearly better in the second half, but simply put, the Wolverines need to be significantly better here moving forward because it was a big reason they were in such a big hole entering the second half.

This team is as good as its guards will be

Unlike last year with Michigan’s three-headed front court monster of Yaxel Lendeborg, Morez Johnson Jr. and Aday Mara, the foundation for the Wolverines this season is the starting back court of point guard Elliot Cadeau and shooting guard Trey McKenney. Cadeau, the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player last season, and McKenney, the local phenom that was set to take a step forward now that he’s in a starting role, should be able to keep Michigan in most of its games this season.

This game was, unfortunately, not one of them.

The Wolverines were down 43-30 at halftime — Cadeau was 3-of-9 from the field at the break, which isn’t great, but it’s also not as bad as McKenney’s 0-of-7. The two of them combined to go 1-of-6 from beyond the arc. If it wasn’t for Roddy Gayle Jr.’s 12 first-half points, they would have really been in trouble.

McKenney turned things on with 22 second-half points, but Cadeau was only able to score two more points in the second half to get up to eight for the game. UConn was also able to match pretty much everything Michigan threw its way, so even with McKenney’s hot second half, it was already too late to mount a proper comeback.

The teams that go the further in the NCAA Tournament historically have a great back court. Michigan’s guard duo struggled against UConn; it will certainly have to be more consistent scoring the basketball moving forward.

These tough non-conference games will ultimately help U-M

Make no mistake about it, head coach Mike Boynton Jr. has himself a steep hill to climb if he is to get this program back to where it was a year ago. It all started with tonight’s game — a neutral-site matchup against one of the top teams (and head coach) in all of college basketball year in and year out.

The Wolverines may have lost tonight’s game, but they now have an advantage that not many other teams have so early on in the season: they lost to an elite team, so they now know what they need to work on and get better at so they can better compete with the UConn’s of the world.

Former head coach Dusty May was a fan of his team’s being tested early on. The 2024-25 season featured schools like Wake Forest, Arkansas and others in the non-conference portion of the schedule; last year, the Wolverines played Duke (in February, no less), along with Wake Forest (again), TCU, and a bunch of good programs at the Players Era Tournament like San Diego State, Auburn and Gonzaga.

“Just going back to what we changed, our philosophy three or four years ago where we just felt like the teams that scheduled aggressively early, they improved,” May said in Oct. 2024. “They were challenged, they were exposed, their warts were out in the open and they stayed the course, and they improved because of all that.

“…Did we intend to have one of the best, toughest schedules in the country? No, but we definitely wanted to play Arkansas and Wake Forest and those guys, and it’s going to be fun, it’s going to be challenging.”

Boynton has the same mindset May did — he wants to face challenging teams early on to identify the exact issues that need to be corrected so they don’t come back to haunt them later. AKA: Not making the same mistake twice.

With tonight’s game, as well as other upcoming games against Marquette, Villanova, Creighton (and others like Creighton at the Players Era Tournament) and Louisville, the Wolverines have yet another difficult non-conference schedule in 2026-27. And even though the team lost to UConn tonight, Michigan fans should be confident the team will improve from their mistakes and eventually be better because of them.

Up Next

The Wolverines head back to Ann Arbor for a pair of home games next week. First up is Marquette on Wednesday, Nov. 11 (7 p.m., FS1), followed by William & Mary on Sunday, Nov. 15 (2 p.m., B1G+).

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