Welcome on into the Wolverine.com podcast. Clayton Safie here with Anthony Broome and Chris Ballas.

We are all at the Key Bank Center in Buffalo, New York. It took us, we went through Canada to get here.

First time I've ever been to Canada.

As someone as a member of a...

Exactly. And, yeah, I mean... as someone as a member of a exactly and uh yeah i mean we own hockey now so i kind of was riding

through canada with my chest puffed out a little bit uh we kind of we own their sport we own

basketball as well but uh let's break it down here.

Michigan and Howard in the first round of the NCAA tournament, 7.10 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday night. Jason Benetti, who I just gave a go-t Tigers to, will be filling in for

Brian Anderson on the call. Anthony's wearing his tiger's hat, wrapping as always.

We just saw open practice. We just got to go inside the locker room, talk to Michigan players. We talked to Dusty May at the podium.

Let's get a quick vibe check as to where you guys are at here almost 24 hours away from tip off.

Here's my overreaction. I was watching all the team shoot out there,

courtside, and Michigan was by far the least effective in practice and in warm-ups. So,

and it wasn't close. St. Louis was really good. If they play five out, in fact, based on what I

saw today, if I were all of you, I would bet your houses on St. Louis beating Georgia and then giving

Michigan a game in the Sweet 16. So there you have it. That's my expert opinion of the day.

Overall, Yaxelun, you look great. He's not hurt. His ankle's not bothering him at all. He was

moving just fine. Same with Roddy Gale. It was good to see. So Roddy Gale was making shot after shot and warmups like he always does. Would love for him to translate that to a game. I can only remember one triple that he's made really in the last like two months, if I'm not mistaken. I'd like to see what that is. But it's kind of like me when I'm golfing. It's like, all right, just pretend you're on the practice range, right? And forget about where you are and let it fly. So if you can do that, then you can help them. But they're going to need some better shooting performances to win this whole thing. I think they can make to the final four, or at least the elite eight, even if they don't. But regardless, these guys seem loose. They seem happy. The Purdue game, I was talking to John B-line today, as you guys heard.

And he said, you know what?

They played a perfect game.

He said to beat them.

They had to play a perfect game to beat them.

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