{"id":6091,"date":"2026-08-19T06:49:04","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T06:49:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/08\/19\/michigan-finding-itself-in-practice-ready-for-test-in-europe-trip\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T06:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T06:49:08","slug":"michigan-finding-itself-in-practice-ready-for-test-in-europe-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/08\/19\/michigan-finding-itself-in-practice-ready-for-test-in-europe-trip\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan finding itself in practice, ready for test in Europe trip"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Friday, the Michigan men\u2019s basketball team will depart for Lithuania, kicking off a nine-day trip in which the Wolverines will play three exhibition games against international competition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The trip, which will take the team through both Lithuania and Croatia, allotted Michigan up to 10 additional preseason practices, and so far it\u2019s been using those to its advantage. Coach Mike Boynton Jr., senior guard Elliot Cadeau and sophomore guard Trey McKenney all spoke to the media Tuesday, each conveying their confidence with how the team has progressed through summer practice and their excitement for a first test in Europe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s been really helpful,\u201d Boynton said of the extra practices. \u201cThis team (is) totally different in terms of the pieces and even the roles for the guys who are returning. So both the new guys and the guys returning in those new roles need some time to figure out how that looks for each of them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Two players who don\u2019t have much uncertainty surrounding their role this season are the two who spoke Tuesday: Cadeau and McKenney. Given their presence as the two <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/it-all-pays-off-for-elliot-cadeau-in-national-championship\/\">biggest<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/on-biggest-stage-of-trey-mckenneys-career-it-was-just-like-practice\/\">contributors<\/a> to last season\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/michigan-wins-national-championship-69-63-knocks-off-connecticut\/\">championship<\/a> as well as their quick, tone-setting decisions to return after the departure of coach Dusty May, the backcourt duo\u2019s expectations are both clearer and higher. Cadeau certainly feels that way, claiming he and McKenney will be \u201cthe best backcourt in college basketball\u201d this year.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There\u2019s a reason claims that bold aren\u2019t being made about other aspects of the team. This edition of the Wolverines has only recently begun to share a floor together, and not yet against anyone other than themselves. There are plenty of still-unknown variables outside of the few returners. So far in practice, though, some of those variables are starting to get worked out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For example, transfers junior forward J.P. Estrella and junior center Moustapha Thiam have made a strong impression so far. Cadeau praised their shooting ability in particular, noting the versatility and spacing that skill can bring to Michigan\u2019s offense. Five-star freshman guard Brandon McCoy Jr.\u2019s athleticism seems to have made itself known, too.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019d be shocked if (McCoy) doesn\u2019t have at least a dunk in every game,\u201d Boynton said. \u201cAnd most games he\u2019ll have multiple dunks, just because he can. \u2026 I watched him for four games in Switzerland last summer \u2026 and I think in four games that I watched, every shot that he attempted was a dunk, and I was worried about that. How does this work in college? And the fact of the matter is, it does. It works.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Estrella, Thiam, McCoy and several other new faces will get to translate their practice success to in-game contexts in the coming weeks. The Wolverines will start against the Lithuanian national team and B team this weekend, and then play Serbian pro team KK Mega Basket in Croatia next Wednesday. And while Boynton has been clear that these games will be a testing ground, that he\u2019s gonna \u201ctry some things,\u201d the players are certainly looking forward to the challenge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOur first goal is to win every game,\u201d Cadeau said. \u201cBut other than that, we just want to be able to learn from everything, and just get situated with everything, be able to know our roles on the team, and just learn about ourselves and about our teammates as much as possible.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because of how far away the regular season still is, Boynton\u2019s purported strategy and injury reasons \u2014 senior forward Jalen Reed is still recovering and won\u2019t play on the trip \u2014 the Europe tour will not be a reliable indicator of Michigan\u2019s quality come November. But it will be the Wolverines\u2019 best chance yet to learn about themselves, continuing the progress that\u2019s been made so far in summer practice.<\/p>\n<aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Friday, the Michigan men\u2019s basketball team will depart for Lithuania, kicking off a nine-day trip in which the Wolverines will play three exhibition games against international competition. The trip, which will take the team through both Lithuania and Croatia, allotted Michigan up to 10 additional preseason practices, and so far it\u2019s been using those [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[5306,4389,222,5305,211,3603,2148],"class_list":["post-6091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-europe","tag-finding","tag-michigan","tag-practice","tag-ready","tag-test","tag-trip"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6091"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6093,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6091\/revisions\/6093"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}