EMU Little Brother'd in Michigan Scrimmage

Note: That’s right, you can believe what your eyes are showing you. We’re going to start adding basketball coverage to Ypsilanti’s college football newsletter. I have, in fact, covered hoops before, but not lately. I’ve covered EMU’s basketball teams before, and I even covered Indiana high schools and a Division 3 college for a small-town newspaper.

My goal, more broadly, is to keep this newsletter active and curious. I haven’t written anything about basketball since I turned in my Trine University season preview assignments in 2017, but that doesn’t mean my seat from Michigan’s arena was an unfamiliar position for me to be in.

There’s still a month until the season truly tips off, but Eastern Michigan’s men’s basketball team has been active with scrimmages both private and public. On Sunday, EMU drove down Washtenaw Ave. to take on Michigan, the defending national champions, at the Crisler Center in Ann Arbor.

EMU never had the lead and fell 87-62. Michigan got to a strong start in the first five minutes (11-2 score), and EMU only brought the game within three points (15-12) before the scoring gap grew wider and wider and wider.

“We were not good; we were bad. I take responsibility for that,” new EMU head coach Billy Donlon, hired in March, said after the exhibition.

“I thought we played emotional. It's hard — we’ve never been in this environment. We got seven guys that have never played Division 1, and this is their first opportunity to play a Division 1 game, and you're doing it against these guys.”

Eastern Michigan went through a coaching change this year after the Stan Heath era proved to be unsuccessful. The former guard (1984-87) to eventual 5-year head coach (2021-26) for EMU struggled to produce many wins for his alma mater.

In his 10 seasons in charge of the program, Rob Murphy (166-155 overall, 79-93 MAC) led EMU to a top-8 seeding in the MAC tournament eight straight times, followed by a #11 seed placement in 2019-20 (6-12 MAC record), and, at #9 in the final standings of a COVID-shortened season, did not qualify for the 8-team league tournament format in 2021 (3-11 MAC).

The two mutually agreed to part ways, and EMU chose to go with one of its former Detroit-bred players, who once led Kent State to a 30-6 record and made it all the way to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament as a rookie coach. That was in 2002. In 2021, after he coached at Arkansas (5 years, 2 tourney appearances), South Florida (7 years, 1 tourney win), and in the NBA G League with the Orlando Magic affiliate team (2021 coach of the year), it seemed like Heath was a perfect choice to bring back home.

Unfortunately, that just wasn’t the case.

Heath finished with a 36.5% win rate (57-99, 29-63 MAC), and only one of his teams reached the 8-team MAC tournament. That 2024-25 team went 16-16 overall, 9-9 in league play, and was the closest any of his teams came to having a winning season.

When eventual NBA Draft pick (current G-Leaguer) Emoni Bates was on the roster in a very loud, public, and controversial return to his hometown from Memphis, Heath’s team struggled the most: 8-23.

EMU and Heath split, then the school waited until Clemson was bounced from last year’s Tournament before formally announcing Donlon as its next coach. Donlon, 49, from Illinois, played at UNC-Wilmington in the 1990s, has head coaching experience at Wright State (109-94, six seasons) and Kansas City (49-39, three seasons), and was voted Coach of the Year in 2013.

In 2016, Wright State fired Donlon after he led the team to its third 20+ win season in four years. The reason? Wright State’s AD said Donlon’s teams were good, but not good enough.

Since then, Donlon’s worked alongside John Bilein at Michigan, Chris Collins at Northwestern, and, at their third school together, Brad Brownell at Clemson. Before Brownell was head coach for Wilmington in 2002 and Wright State in 2006, the two were assistants together for Wilmington in 2001, under Jerry Wainwright.

Now, four years since he was last a head coach, Donlon is in charge of his third mid-major program after he helped guide Michigan and Clemson into the NCAA Tournament four times.

Can any of that Tournament-reaching knowledge help turn that dream into a reality at EMU? EMU hasn’t reached the Tournament since it went four times between the 1988 and 1998 seasons (3-4 record all-time; Sweet Sixteen in 1991).

Grace is more affordable when a game like this doesn’t go against its record, and it’s certainly understandable when you consider how many new pieces there are on this team: new head coach, mostly-new roster, new level of competition for some of the newcomers.

The previous weekend, EMU hung around with, what Donlon said, another “really good team” in a private exhibition on the road, “and this week, I thought we were just okay. So that tells us we didn’t handle success the way we needed to.”

No, it’s not going to be a loss this team can’t get past, but that doesn’t mean it lost a mistake-free game at the buzzer, either.

Shot for shot, Donlon was pleased to see his team shoot 51% from the floor (26-51) to Michigan’s 50% (30-60), but there are still plenty of clear, tangible reasons as to how EMU saw itself lose by 25.

EMU turned the ball over 21 times, and two starters, Mohammad Habhab and Sencire Harris, led that category with six apiece. Michigan was able to score 16 points off those turnovers; EMU got four points off 12 Michigan turnovers.

EMU was 2-for-11 from 3-point range, and both of those makes came in the first half (0-for-6 in second). Michigan was 12-for-31 on deep shots.

EMU got to the free-throw line 19 times, and made only eight of those shots. Michigan: 15-for-23 at the charity stripe.

“You know, Michigan turned the ball over. That was due to our pressure,” the coach said. “But, you know, we didn't share the ball. We tried to play hero basketball. We’ve got to help them more offensively and the offense side of the ball. We were a couple steps slow defensively.”

Michigan’s defensive switching, Donlon pointed out, played a part in EMU attempting only a third of Michigan’s shot attempts from behind the arc, but not as much as EMU’s own ball-handling woes.

Errant passes went out of bounds or to nearby Michigan defenders. Multiple traveling violations and offensive fouls put EMU behind early with 12 first-half turnovers. Sometimes EMU drove to the bucket and lost control of the ball under the rim. One time, at the 9-minute mark in the opening half, Harris lost the ball dribbling it between his legs as he went up-court, and it rolled out after the ball hit his foot.

The next play, Michigan hit a corner three to take a 10-point lead.

“When we got a shot, we shot 50%. Nobody, defensively, would want to give up 50% from the floor, but the 20 turnovers are a problem. Their switching limits the threes. Their switching is a big reason for that.

“But, you know, I thought we'll be able to show our team like, hey, we’ve got to we got to be more disciplined with the ball. We’ve got to do a better job coaching our guys, reading the defense; we did a bad job of that tonight. But when we got a shot, it's 50%. Imagine if, when we got a shot, we were 35% with all the turnovers. So there are some positive things to look at.”

FINAL NOTES