The Wolverine

February 2025

The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports

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42 THE WOLVERINE ❱ FEBRUARY 2025 N ot all conference basketball sched- ules are created equal, one of the reasons it's dangerous to put too much stock into a good (or even bad) start. It's hard to find balance when there are 18 Big Ten teams. Some are going to have "easier" slates to start the season and will face their gauntlet later in the campaign. Others are going to have that flipped, and still others will have a roller coaster slate of good team, bad team, good team, etc. Dusty May's first Michigan team wasn't done any favors when it came to scheduling, opening the season at Wis- consin — one of the toughest places to play in the country — before facing po- tential NCAA Tournament teams Iowa, USC and UCLA, with the latter two on the road. Yet the Wolverines have over- come all challenges, improving to 5-0 to start conference play with a 91-75 home win over Washington Jan. 12 heading into a Jan. 16 road game at Minnesota. May had a message for his team after the Washington victory, one in which graduate center Vlad Goldin scored 19 points and graduate wing Nimari Burnett added 16, going 4-for-4 from three-point range in the win. "We have a road trip to Minnesota next," May told his team in the locker room after the win over the Huskies. "We've proven we're better on the road than we are at home, and we've got to do it again. "Guys, let's not look at the records … let's not look at anything else. Let's continue to get better. If we focus on our process, we're going to look up in a couple weeks and say, 'Damn! I like where we are!' And in a month and six weeks. "But we can't get caught up in all the other stuff. We're going to be told how great we are, but just know all that stuff is distracting for what we need to do." And that's get better and prepare to make a deep run in the NCAA Tourna- ment, which looks more likely by the day. Winning away from home is tough in the Big Ten, especially when you're ❱  MICHIGAN BASKETBALL Wolverines Off To A Surprising 5-0 Big Ten Start Junior guard Tre Donaldson had a season-high 20 points in the win at UCLA Jan. 7, helping Michigan notch another important road victory in Big Ten play. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL

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