When Michigan men's basketball sprinkled in that big three look of Will Cheddar, Danny Wolf,

and Vlad Golden down the stretch, including in the finish of the Big Ten tournament championship game

against Wisconsin, I did have the thought a few times. Well, how did they practice this?

The size on last season's Michigan roster pales in comparison to this season. It's not something

you necessarily need to drill

over and over, but still, when all of the size is on one side with Will, Danny, and Vlad, it's

tough to drill. We'll see how Michigan sequences things with their rotation this year, but most

certainly there are many more ways Dusty May and this coaching staff can deploy

lineups and practice that don't tilt things completely one direction size-wise. A big reason for

that, literally and figuratively, is today's guest, Malik Cordell. Cordell is a unique project.

He did not play any basketball until COVID forced his activities outdoors.

Shortly thereafter, he discarded his childhood game of handball for basketball at a competitive

level and has already exceeded his handball career in terms of where it has taken him,

not just here in America, but back in his home country of Germany. Cordell stands 7-2 and

weighs 275 pounds. Of all Michigan's

bigs this year, he has a frame that is most similar to Vlad Golden, which means he's an

interesting foil to the likes of Ady Mara, Moraz Johnson Jr., even Yaxil Lendaborg in practice.

Who knows what role Cordell will play this season and beyond, but it does

feel like he can have an impact at the very least in practices this season, and then hey, we'll see.

Last week, we talked about some elements of non-conference scheduling that feels safe to assume

is more strategy than happenstance, more routine than coincidence under head coach Dusty May.

And I think it's fair to wonder the same about roster building toward the end of a given season's

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