March 18, 2026, 5:09 a.m. ET
Free Press sports activities writers Christian Romo and Ryan Ford break down Thursday’s NCAA Tournament Midwest area first-round sport between No. 3-ranked Michigan basketball and Howard.
Fast information
Matchups: 1-seed Michigan (31-3) vs. 16-seed Howard (24-10); NCAA Tournament Midwest area first spherical.
Tipoff: 7:10 p.m. Thursday, March 19; KeyBank Center, Buffalo, N.Y.
TV/radio: CBS, WCSX-FM (94.7).
At stake: Thursday’s winner advances to face both 8-seed Georgia or 9-seed Saint Louis in Saturday’s second spherical.
Series: Michigan leads, 1-0, with a 76-58 win on Nov. 11, 2016.
Michigan basketball: Meet the Wolverines
Location: Ann Arbor.
Coach: Dusty May.
School event document: 68-31 in 33 appearances (eight Final Fours, one championship).
Past 10 video games: 8-2.
Scoring leaders: F Yaxel Lendeborg, 14.6 factors per sport; F Morez Johnson Jr., 13.1; C Aday Mara, 11.6.
Rebounding leaders: Johnson, 7.2 rebounds per sport; Lendeborg, 7.0; Mara, 6.9.
Assist leaders: PG Elliot Cadeau, 5.6 assists per sport; Lendeborg, 3.2; G L.J. Cason, 2.4 (out for season); Mara, 2.3.
3-point leaders: Cason, 40.2% (out for season); Johnson, 37.9%; G Nimari Burnett, 37.7%.
The buzz: The Wolverines appeared like essentially the most dominant staff in faculty basketball for lengthy stretches of the season, and their blemishes from arguably their biggest common season ever are few. A non-conference loss to Duke plus a Big Ten Tournament loss to Purdue are the 2 largest explanation why the Wolverines will not be the No. 1 total seed, however there are three huge explanation why Michigan has a robust likelihood to win all of it.
Reason No. 1 is huge man Yaxel Lendeborg, the first-team All-American and Big Ten Player of the Year who does nearly every thing on the ground. Reason No. 2 is middle Aday Mara, the 7-foot-3 defensive stalwart whose offensive sport has matured in Ann Arbor. And purpose No. 3 is huge man Morez Johnson Jr., the “junkyard dog” that is the beating coronary heart of this Michigan staff.
Howard dominated the paint towards UMBC however may have a tricky time matching up with even considered one of these star bigs, a lot much less all three. The Wolverines ought to win, nicely, huge.
Howard basketball: Meet the Bison
Location: Washington.
Coach: Kenneth Blakeney (97-106 in seven seasons, all at Howard).
School event document: 1-4 in 5 appearances (together with a win Tuesday).
Past 10 video games: 8-2.
Scoring leaders (coming into Tuesday): Bryce Harris, 17.1 factors per sport; Cedric Taylor III, 17.1; Cam Gillus, 10.6; Ose Okojie, 10.5.
Rebounding leaders: Harris, 6.9; Taylor, 6.7; Gillus, 4.3.
Assist leaders: Gillus, 4.6; Taylor, 3.3; Harris, 2.5.
3-point leaders: Isaiah Brown, 43.8%; Okojie, 42.9%; BJ Powell, 40%.
The buzz: The Bison – so nicknamed to honor the Black “buffalo soldiers” who impressed Native Americans with their fighting spirit after the Civil War – picked up the primary NCAA Tournament victory in program historical past on Tuesday, topping America East champs UMBC, 86-83. Still, Howard is not any stranger to the NCAAs, making their third look in 4 seasons after profitable the MEAC regular-season and event titles. Howard performs an opportunistic protection, with 8.7 steals per sport, good for 27th nationally, to maintain opponents to simply 67.8 factors a sport, 40th in Division I.
The Bison and Wolverines shared a pair of opponents this season, with Howard falling to Duke by 37 on the street in November and shedding to Northwestern by 20 on the street in December, whereas U-M misplaced to Duke by three in February and beat Northwestern by 12, additionally in February.
