Michigan relishes team bonding opportunity in Florida ahead of UCF matchup

The best part? His old teammates from the Michigan men’s basketball team were in the building to support him and two former Wolverines in Moritz Wagner and Ignas Brazdeikis.

Juwan Howard and his team traveled early Monday morning to Orlando, where they practiced at Central Florida. Michigan held practice at the Magic’s training facility on Tuesday before attending Orlando’s matchup against Milwaukee that night. The Wolverines spent Wednesday bonding as a team before another practice on UCF’s campus, and on Thursday, they’re set to take on the Knights.

“It was great, just after the holiday, for our team to get together and spend some more time developing that brotherhood, that chemistry, that family bonding that we’ve always been about,” Howard said Wednesday. “And with how the traveling situation has been with COVID, we wanted to try to get ahead of it, with how flight situations have been with a lot of the airlines with cancellations we were trying to get ahead of it so we didn’t have any problems with arriving here to play the game versus Central Florida. So fortunate enough, we’re happy that we arrived safely and it’s good that we’ve been here working hard in practice preparing for our opponent.”

Michigan has enjoyed its week in the Sunshine State, but so far, the highlight has been Wagner’s big performance on Tuesday night.

“We’ve had fun. We’re having a really nice (time) together,” Howard said. “It was great to see Franz (Wagner) last night. Franz, I’m sure it’s out there publicly, he played very well. Well-played game last night. His performance was at a high level.

“He scored his season-high but unfortunately, I know Franz, what he cares about most is the team win and sadly to say they did not pull out the W but it was great to see that Franz had support in the building, not just from the Magic fans but his Michigan brothers and coaches as well as extended staff members were all there to support him and it was nice just to see Franz play very well.”

Beyond the younger Wagner, Moe scored seven points in 10 minutes and Brazdeikis pulled down a rebound during five minutes of action. The latter two have struggled to carve out a consistent role so far this season, but the No. 8 overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft has established himself as one of the league’s top rookies.

Still, this Florida week remains a business trip. The Wolverines have a chance to secure a Quad 1 win on Thursday, as UCF comes in ranked No. 53 on KenPom. So far, Michigan has a 1-4 record against teams ranked in KenPom’s top 70.

After a 12-day layoff, a victory over the Knights would serve as a springboard back into Big Ten play for the Wolverines. A loss, on the other hand, would be Michigan’s fifth defeat before even flipping the calendar to 2022.

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