Grab Some Pine Pull up a bench. Bay Area sports, Michigan, and a model or two.
September 22, 2026
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Nell Barton, Michigan Basketball desk
Michigan Basketball desk

Nell Barton

Crisler holds thirteen thousand and the rotation is eight men deep, which makes college basketball the most legible sport on this site. Lineups, minutes, and what the tape actually shows.

When he files: Weekly from November, dormant until the season opens.

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0Held up
0Missed
6Still open

Nothing resolved yet. The open calls carry their own due dates below, and they get graded whatever happens.

Every call, graded

The work, newest first

Rotation

Michigan's roster is full at fifteen, and the two guards it wants are outside it

Michigan's official 2026-27 roster listed fifteen players on Saturday morning. The cumulative statistics sheet from the European tour lists the same fifteen. Kenny Noland, the Columbia transfer Michigan signed on August 19, is on neither, and neither is Roddy Gayle Jr., who has held a temporary restraining order since September 2. The Niagara County docket carried no decision on Gayle's injunction motion as of Saturday morning, two days after the hearing was scheduled.

Nell BartonSep 19, 20266 min read
Michigan's roster is full at fifteen, and the two guards it wants are outside it
Eligibility

The NCAA Has Asked Niagara County To Dissolve The Order That Makes Roddy Gayle Eligible

The NCAA answered Roddy Gayle Jr. on September 9 with a memorandum of law asking Niagara County Supreme Court to deny his preliminary injunction and vacate the September 2 temporary restraining order. Its case is built on New York law rather than on basketball: Martin v. Curran, a 1972 Monroe County decision holding that an athlete derives no rights from an association's bylaws, and the argument that Education Law section 6438-c creates no private right of action. The same day, a federal judge in West Virginia denied fourteen Class of 2022 athletes the same relief, but on a West Virginia statute New York does not have. Gayle's reply brief is due September 14 and the hearing is September 17. Michigan's published roster is still fifteen players and still does not include him.

Nell BartonSep 12, 20266 min read
The NCAA Has Asked Niagara County To Dissolve The Order That Makes Roddy Gayle Eligible
Eligibility

Roddy Gayle Is Eligible Until September 17 And Michigan's Roster Is Already Full

Roddy Gayle Jr. sued the NCAA in Niagara County Supreme Court on August 31 and won a temporary restraining order on September 2, twelve days after the Tenth Circuit took away the class ruling that had made him eligible. The order bars the NCAA from declaring him ineligible and from punishing Michigan for playing him, and it runs until a preliminary injunction hearing on September 17 at 2 p.m. Michigan announced its non-conference schedule on September 4: three exhibitions in October and an opener against Oakland on November 2. Its published 2026-27 roster lists fifteen players, which is the roster limit, and Gayle is not one of them.

Nell BartonSep 5, 20265 min read
Roddy Gayle Is Eligible Until September 17 And Michigan's Roster Is Already Full
Rotation

Michigan Has Sixty-Six Days And One Sentence About Brandon McCoy

Brandon McCoy Jr. started all three of Michigan's European exhibitions and played one minute of the third, leaving the floor twenty seconds into the August 27 win over Mega Superbet in Igalo, Montenegro. Michigan's only public word is that he will continue to be evaluated, and its own game recap names seven Wolverines without naming him. He had 62 of Michigan's 600 tour player-minutes and 9 of its 30 steals. The opener against Oakland is 66 days from the day the team flew home.

Nell BartonAug 29, 20264 min read
Michigan Has Sixty-Six Days And One Sentence About Brandon McCoy
Eligibility

Michigan Landed In Lithuania And Lost Its Fifth-Year Guard The Same Day

A three-judge panel froze Judge Sweeney's July 31 injunction on August 21, the day Michigan arrived in Lithuania, and the NCAA's chief legal officer says class members declared eligible under it are no longer eligible. At Michigan that is Roddy Gayle Jr., who played 39 of 40 games last season at 21.1 minutes a night. The three exhibitions starting August 23 are now the entire audition for the minutes behind Elliot Cadeau, and the merits appeal has no public argument date.

Nell BartonAug 22, 20265 min read
Michigan Landed In Lithuania And Lost Its Fifth-Year Guard The Same Day
The frontcourt

Michigan Won A Title With Its Big Men And Flies To Lithuania Without Them

Michigan's championship frontcourt never missed a game: three men, 40 appearances each, 78.7 minutes a night between them. Its replacement is Moustapha Thiam, J.P. Estrella and Jalen Reed, and Reed has played 14 of LSU's last 64 games. The plane leaves in six days, the first exhibition is in eight, and the opener against Oakland is 80 days out.

Nell BartonAug 15, 20266 min read
Michigan Won A Title With Its Big Men And Flies To Lithuania Without Them
Roster math

Michigan's Backup Point Guard Is A Pending Motion In Denver

Roddy Gayle Jr. played 21.1 minutes a night in 39 of Michigan's 40 games last season. A Colorado injunction gave him a fifth year on July 31, a clarification on August 2 took away his ability to transfer, and the NCAA appealed on August 3. Michigan is the only door he can walk through, and Michigan boards a plane for Lithuania on August 21.

Nell BartonAug 9, 20266 min read
Michigan's Backup Point Guard Is A Pending Motion In Denver