Michigan Basketball Practice, Bye Week Happenings, Big Ten Bananas

Michigan basketball is just around the corner but so is a huge matchup with Michigan State on the gridiron.

Friday afternoon marked Michigan basketball's media day and it was definitely eventful. Head coach Juwan Howard spoke with the media for more than 35 minutes and then almost every player took the podium for 10-15 minutes to talk about the early practices, upcoming season, team chemistry and more. After that, we got a chance to watch practice for about 30 minutes, which gave everyone a chance to see the talented freshmen and transfer point guard Devante Jones for the first time. That gives us plenty of time to talk about the upcoming season before the opener against Buffalo on Nov. 10.

We also had a chance to dive into the weekend's slate of Big Ten games with Michigan on a bye this week. Iowa fell to Purdue, Rutgers lost to Northwestern and Michigan State remained undefeated with a close win over Indiana. It really makes you wonder what's going on in the Big Ten and almost sets the stage for a massive showdown between the Wolverines and Spartans in two weeks. First, Michigan will have to take care of business against Northwestern, but all things are trending towards a huge top-ten showdown between heated and hated rivals.