NEW YORK — Johnell Davis will have plenty of motivation in Tuesday night’s Arkansas vs Michigan matchup at Madison Square Garden.
The heralded transfer will be going head-to-head with the coach who originally recruited him to Florida Atlantic, as Dusty May left the Owls to lead the No. 14 Wolverines this offseason. The pair spent four years together and will now be reunited at 8 p.m. CT inside the “Mecca of Basketball” in New York City.
“He’s definitely going to have a chip on his shoulder,” teammate Jonas Aidoo said. “I’m just going to keep it at that.”
The exact source of that “chip” is unclear, but it could have something to do with Davis being unable to follow his former coach to Michigan. The Wolverines were considered an early favorite to land him, but according to at least one report, he wasn’t admitted to the school — an issue many non-graduate transfers run into.
Two years ago, Texas Tech transfer Terrence Shannon Jr. committed to Michigan, but ended up at Illinois when “academic snags” prevented him from enrolling in Ann Arbor. An enrollment issue appears to have been at the root of why center Papa Kante never helped out in Ann Arbor after Hunter Dickinson’s departure. Last offseason, Caleb Love pledged to transfer from North Carolina to Michigan, but ran into an “admissions issue related to credits transferring” and ended up at Arizona instead.
Those were two tough blows to former Michigan basketball coach Juwan Howard and likely contributed to him being fired, opening the door for May to take over. Love was named the 2024 Pac-12 Player of the Year, while Shannon went 2-0 against the Wolverines (with 21- and 31-point performances) and was an AP third-team All-American alongside Love last year.
Arkansas is still waiting on that kind of production from Davis, but does seem to be turning a corner of late. He has scored in double figures in three of the Razorbacks’ last four games and is 11 of 20 (55%) from deep over that stretch. In the one game he failed to score at least 12 points, Davis had 6 assists to only 1 turnover to go with his 3 points. If he takes another step up on Tuesday night, he will certainly add to the list of standouts that the Michigan basketball faithful rue missing out on.
In addition to facing his former head coach, Davis will also share the court with former teammate Vladislav Goldin. The 7-foot-1 Russian played with Davis for three seasons at FAU.
Of course, he won’t be the only inspired Arkansas basketball player Tuesday night.
The matchup inside Madison Square Garden is a homecoming of sorts for freshman point guard Boogie Fland, a native of The Bronx. According to college basketball insider Adam Zagoria, he is expected to have 40-plus family and friends in attendance. That number includes the entire team and coaching staff at Stepinac High School, Fland’s alma mater.
Follow along below for live updates, stats and highlights from the Arkansas vs Michigan game…
(READ NEXT: Check out our in-depth preview of Arkansas vs Michigan)
LIVE UPDATES — Arkansas vs Michigan
Pregame Tidbits
Best of Arkansas Sports has arrived at Madison Square Garden for the Jimmy V Classic. No. 1 Tennessee has a 15-point lead over Miami (Fla.) about halfway through the second half of the first game of the night.
Tennessee ended up winning the game 75-62. The Arkansas vs Michigan game will start on time.
Zvonimir Ivisic is going through pregame warmups and appears to be ready to play tonight. The Hogs look like they may be as close to 100% as they’ve been in a long time.
(Well, maybe not: Per Seth Greenberg on the ESPN broadcast, Adou Thiero is “under the weather” today, but still playing.)
A loud Hog call broke out as Arkansas ran onto the court for its final pregame warmups. There are a lot of Arkansas fans in the building.
14:00, 1H – Arkansas 8, Michigan 7
The opening sequence of the game was highlighted by an impressive fast break dunk by Trevon Brazile that started with a block by Jonas Aidoo. Brazile has given the Hogs some good minutes off the bench so far, with 4 points and 2 rebounds. However, the Hogs have wasted several opportunities for more – missing a couple of open 3s and squandering three offensive rebounds.
11:09, 1H – Michigan 16, Arkansas 12
Nimari Burnett just had a great stretch for Michigan. He hit a tough jumper to beat the shot clock, converted a reverse layup and then drilled a contested 3 to score seven straight points for the Wolverines.
7:01, 1H – Michigan 33, Arkansas 21
Will Tschetter has taken over for the Wolverines. He’s knocked down three 3s and made a bucket down low, giving him 13 points. Calipari had to burn a timeout after he hit back-to-back 3s. Michigan is shooting 68.4% (13 of 19) from the field, including 4 of 6 (66.7%) from deep. The Hogs have turned it over six times, resulting in 9 points. Meanwhile, they have just 2 points off three turnovers and 0 points off four offensive rebounds. The lead has been as large as 15.
2:42, 1H – Michigan 44, Arkansas 38
The Wolverines went a stretch of 7-plus minutes in which they didn’t miss a shot for commit a turnover. They made 11 straight shots over that stretch. However, Arkansas clawed its way back into it behind some great play by Boogie Fland and back-to-back 3s from Zvonimir Ivisic and Karter Knox. That briefly made it a 4-point game before Michigan got a bucket just before the final media timeout.
HALF – Michigan 49, Arkansas 45
The Hogs managed to get within 1 on a dunk through traffic by Aidoo, who got a great feed from Fland. However, Sam Walters got a 3 in the closing seconds to push the Wolverines’ lead back to 4. Fland leads the way with 13 points and 4 assists with no turnovers.
HALFTIME STATS
17:09, 2H – Arkansas 52, Michigan 49
You really couldn’t draw up a better start to the second half for Arkansas. The Hogs forced turnovers on Michigan’s first three possessions and have suddenly taken the lead for the first time since the first five minutes of the game. They’re on a 7-0 run to start the half, leading to a Michigan timeout.
15:30, 2H – Arkansas 57, Michigan 51
Arkansas stretched the run to 12-0 before Goldin dunked through contact to send us to the U16 media timeout. The last points for the Hogs came on a corner 3 by Davis, who had missed his first five shots of the game.
11:24, 2H – Arkansas 73, Michigan 60
After struggling in the first half, D.J. Wagner has been incredible in the second half. In this half alone, he’s already got 14 points on 6 of 7 shooting. That includes two 3s. The Hogs have stretched their lead to 12 and will have the ball after an offensive foul on Michigan.
8:30, 2H – Arkansas 80, Michigan 68
The Hogs had stretched their lead to 18, but a quick 6-0 spurt by the Wolverines – aided by some poor shot selection by the Hogs – prompted a Calipari timeout. Fland leads the way with 18 points and 7 points, but Wagner has 16, Thiero has 13, Brazile has 12 and Aidoo has 10.
3:01, 2H – Arkansas 86, Michigan 80
Basketball is a game of runs, but this is taking that cliche to the extreme. The Wolverines used a 12-0 run to get right back in this game, setting up what will likely be a wild finish. Fland is up to 20 points for the Hogs.
FINAL – Arkansas 89, Michigan 87
Roddy Gayle Jr. made just 1 of 2 free throws at the 1:39 mark, but Danny Wolf grabbed the miss for an offensive rebound and then took it to the rim himself to pull the Wolverines with 1. Meanwhile, the Hogs couldn’t do anything offensively. Michigan got the ball back with a chance to take the lead, but stepped out of bounds with 34.7 seconds left.
Arkansas got the ball in bound to Brazile, who was immediately fouled. With 32.6 seconds left, he missed both free throws. He made up for it with a block on the other end and secured the rebound. He was again fouled, this time with 14.3 seconds left. This time, he made 1 of 2.
Michigan called a timeout with 3.7 seconds left. Arkansas countered with its own timeout. Michigan got a shot off at the buzzer, but missed.
FINAL STATS
Starting Lineups
| Michigan Basketball | Arkansas Basketball |
|---|---|
| #3 – Tre Donaldson – G | #1 – Johnell Davis – G |
| #4 – Nimari Burnett – G | #2 – Boogie Fland – G |
| #11 – Roddy Gayle Jr. – G | #21 – D.J. Wagner – G |
| #1 – Danny Wolf – F | #3 – Adou Thiero – F |
| #50 – Vladislav Goldin – C | #9 – Jonas Aidoo – F |
How to Watch Arkansas vs Michigan
Date: Tuesday, Dec. 10
Location: Madison Square Garden (New York City, N.Y.)
Tipoff Time/TV: 8 p.m. CT (ESPN)
ESPN BPI: Michigan has a 57.0% chance to win and is favored by 1.8 points.
KenPom: Michigan has a 63% chance to win, with a projected score of 74-70.
Betting Line/Odds: Michigan, -4 | O/U 146 (BetSaracen)
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