What to Look for: Toledo, Michigan (Exhibition)

Michigan closes its preseason tonight against Toledo (7:30 p.m., BTN) at the Crisler Center with a charity exhibition benefiting Mott Children's Hospital. The Wolverines defeated Oakland with relative ease on Sunday and now face a more challenging and traditional opponent in Toledo.

The Rockets defeated Grand Valley State 76-71 in their opening game and are projected to finish at No. 177 in KenPom's initial preseason ratings.

Here's what to look for in Michigan's second and final preseason exhibition game.

Consistent MAC winners

Toledo has won the MAC regular season in four consecutive years without winning the conference tournament. As painful as this is for Rocket fans, the program is very healthy – perhaps too healthy. Toledo lost several key players from last year's team to high-ranking schools via the transfer portal: Ra'Heim Moss (Oregon), Dante Maddox (Xavier) and Tyler Cochran (Minnesota).

However, Toledo has the luxury of reloading. The Rockets have excelled at increasing transfers from other MAC schools and have added more Seth Hubbard (West Michigan) and Isaiah Adams (Buffalo) from this year's conference.

The team should depend on the development of two sophomores who were starters last year and were named to the MAC All-Freshman Team. Michigan native Sonny Wilson runs the show from guard as a redshirt sophomore Javan Simmons anchors the interior at 6-foot-7, 235 pounds. Wilson led the Rockets with 15 points in their exhibition win.

Wilson and Simmons are the foundation for the Rockets, but this group will need to replace a significant portion of the perimeter shooting. Last season, Wilson and Simmons combined to shoot just 20 of 71 from 3-point range, and the three outgoing high-major transfers combined for 128 triples.

In the opening game, Toledo was ahead by as many as 17 points in the second half, but a five-point win over a GLIAC opponent suggests that this is still a group that is getting things going with new personnel gets the handle.

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