By Mitchell Rans

Sports Capital Journalism Program

INDIANAPOLIS – Before the start of his second season as men’s basketball coach at the University of Michigan, Dusty May looked at the schedule and discovered that his team’s first Big Ten opponent was Wisconsin at Madison on December 3. When the Wolverines managed to leave with a 67-64 victory, their coach understood its meaning.

“So that one gave us confidence … that we can go on the road and beat the best teams,” May said. “That’s the type of respect and admiration we have for their coaches, their players, their program, their discipline, their culture. I could go on and on. So that was the first one where once we found a way to get that one done, we thought, okay, we can really do this.

“We believed it,” May remembered, “but sometimes you need a little bit of evidence that can happen, and I thought that game gave us that evidence.”

His Wolverines had just created more evidence on Sunday with their 59-53 victory over the Badgers in the championship game of the Big Ten men’s basketball tournament. Michigan’s tournament championship was the first since 2018 and fourth overall. The victory in the 1998 tournament was vacated because of NCAA sanctions.

The Wolverines (25-9) were led by Vladislav Goldin, the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament, who scored 11 points with five rebounds. Goldin was joined on the All-Tournament team by John Tonje of Wisconsin, John Blackwell of Wisconsin, Danny Wolf of Michigan and Derik Queen of Maryland.

Tre Donaldson, whose dramatic last-second end-to-end drive won the semifinal against Maryland, had 11 points with eight assists. With Wisconsin playing four games in four days and Michigan playing three games in three days, the result was the lowest-scoring Big Ten championship game since 2013. Michigan made 32.2% of its shots, including 27.3% from 3-point range. Wisconsin shot 22.1%, including 17.9% from behind the 3-point line.

As both teams struggled to make shots, the physical nature of the game became more important. “That’s what you expect to play in a tournament,” Goldin said, “especially a Big Ten, the most physical conference in the country. That’s what you expect going to play in these kind of games.”

The Wolverines figured that the extra day of rest they received could help benefit them. “We were optimistic that their legs might not hold up as well as ours just because of the number of games,” May said. “Even in the first half, when that thing was ugly and whatnot, we wanted to keep running because we thought it might have a cumulative effect. Credit our guys, they pushed through fatigue, they pushed through injuries. When you have a freshman step up and ignite it, and you have Will Tschetter bringing the passion he brings and knocking down shots and improving the spacing on the floor. Like I said, we have a lot of different ways to get the job done, and our guys believe it.”

The Wolverines were able to limit Tonje to nine points on 1-for-14 shooting. Blackwell was able to help carry the load for the Badgers, picking up 18 points and picking up five rebounds. Max Klesmit scored 12 points. Despite not getting the outcome they wanted on Sunday, the Badgers could look ahead to their first-round NCAA tournament game against Montana at Denver in the East Regional. The Wolverines will also be heading to Denver to meet UC San Diego in the South Regional.

May feels ready and excited for the Wolverines going into the tournament. “Denver is one of my favorite cities on the planet,” May said. “We’re going to go out there and hopefully run up and down like the Nuggets. We’ll get used to the altitude and be excited for the challenge. It’s obviously different for all of us. Just grateful to be a part of this event. It’s the greatest spectacle. I remember being a young kid and the school bus drops you off. Where you’re from and where I’m from, they don’t drop you off at your door. Sprinting home and turning on the TV and watching that first game you could. So just to be a part of it and do it with this group of guys that have sacrificed and fought and just stayed together when it wasn’t easy, just an honor and a privilege to go keep playing with this group.”