The Michigan Wolverines are ranked as the 18th-best team in the country this week, but coach John Beilein's team will need to avoid a few upsets if they want to improve on their standing in the men's basketball polls. After defeating the Oakland Golden Grizzlies in a high-scoring affair last Saturday, the team will play host to the Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions on ESPNU in a game scheduled to be televised at 7 p.m. on ESPNU.
The Wolverines will hope that everything comes up golden once again, in favor of the Ann Arbor-based team, after scoring 90 points against Oakland over the weekend. Considering Arkansas-Pine Bluff has won just won of the team's first six games, none of which came against ranked opponents, the odds are in Michigan's favor on Tuesday night.
The Wolverines will likely lean on some combination of Tim Hardaway Jr., Trey Burke, Evan Smotrycz and Zack Novak as all have shown they're able to step up and contribute to the scoring load at some point thus far in the early-goings of the college basketball season. Their numbers could be even higher if they were able to be more consistent from the charity-stripe, but wins are wins as the team build confidence and chemistry heading into conference play.
As far as the visiting team is concerned, Savalance Townsend will be the player the Wolverines need to contain. The 6-foot-3 senior guard is averaging 18.2 points and 3.3 steals for the Golden Lions this season.
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