The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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78 THE WOLVERINE ❱ MARCH 2025 T he 12,707-seat Crisler Center isn't known as one of the most daunting Big Ten road venues to play in, but it can really get going when the Wolverines are rolling. And rolling, they are. Michi- gan was on a six-game win streak and the top team in the conference with six games re- maining, standing 12-2 in league play. The Wolverines have won 20 regular-season games for the first time since John Beilein was roaming the sidelines, come out on top in six Big Ten road tilts and are the only team in the league to not have suffered a loss on their home floor. Michigan's home court ad- vantage for the 75-73 win over Purdue Feb. 11 was as good as it gets — and was needed to help the Wolverines pull off the vic- tory over a team that had beat them by 27 points weeks earlier. We filed our postgame stories, turned the lights off in the media room and walked across the parking lot by the Wil- liam Davidson Player Development Cen- ter. The coaches' cars were still in the lot, and the lights were on in their offices. We imagined what the conversations were like. This staff is driven and lives in the moment, but they had to be remi- niscing about this Danny Wolf bucket or the big Rubin Jones put-back dunk and the evening that was. It was one of those nights that group will always remember — a big home win, with a great deal of the community in attendance and the rest of the nation watching, head coach Dusty May's first top-10 victory as the head coach in Ann Arbor. In life, it's the journey, not the destina- tion, that really matters. The same is true in sports, where the climb is often just as fun and satisfying as the heights that are reached. We still look fondly on the 2012 home win over Ohio State, led by fresh- man Trey Burke as one of the triumphs toward the end of the Beilein era. Michi- gan was on its way up, after a long dark period, and wound up earning a share of the Big Ten regular-season title. Improvement isn't always linear, but you can go back and trace what the big moments that led to future success were. This felt similar. Beating the back- to-back defending Big Ten champs is a building block for what's to come. Who knows exactly what it'll lead to, but the short- and long-term future looks ex- tremely bright with May at the helm. There are more games to win, titles to chase and runs to make. Dream big, but remember to enjoy the ride. VLADISLAV GOLDIN IS 'TAKEN FOR GRANTED' Graduate center Vladislav Goldin is a 7-foot-1, 250-pound menace on the floor and a lovable personality off it. He showed up on big stages at Florida At- lantic but has been better than imagined for the Wolverines, following his head coach Dusty May from Boca Raton to Ann Arbor and immediately becoming one of the team's most impactful leaders and one of the top players in the Big Ten. M u c h h a s b e e n m a d e o f Michigan's 4-5 ball screen of- fense with junior forward/cen- ter Danny Wolf and Goldin, two 7-footers, running the two-man game. Wolf gets most of the ac- claim because of his playmaking at that size, and Goldin's role is probably overlooked. "Danny gets a lot of credit for the 4-5 pick and roll, but find me another big that finds space like he does and catches the ball in front, behind, low, high, wher- ever," May said of Goldin. The big man leads Michi- gan in scoring (15.7 points per game) and is the only player on the team that averages 13-plus points. He adds 6.2 rebounds a contest and is coming off an out- ing versus the Buckeyes where he hauled in 6 boards on the offen- sive end. He posted a quiet 20 points and 10 rebounds in that one, speaking to just how dominant he's been. Goldin makes simple — but not easy — plays, rolling to the rim, catching the ball and finishing layups at a 68 percent rate. He has the best true shooting per- centage in the Big Ten during league play (67.3), draws 6.8 fouls per 40 minutes (also first) and knocks down 77.9 percent of his free throw attempts. "He's just a good basketball player," May said. "We take him for granted." Goldin has gone off for 30-plus points in two different conference games, and he just overpowers some teams without as much front court firepower. Michigan could run into one of those opponents in the Big Dance, and Goldin may put them over the top. The Wolverines will con- tinue to ride their elite bigs, who could carry them to a deep run. ❏ SAYFIE BLITZ ❱ CLAYTON SAYFIE An Epic Night And A Building Block Crisler Center crowds have been rocking this season, and U-M has been rolling. The Maize and Blue were the only team in the Big Ten that was undefeated at home through mid-February. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL Staff writer Clayton Sayfie has covered Michigan athletics for The Wolverine since 2019. Contact him at Clayton.Sayfie @on3.com and follow him on X (Twitter) @CSayf23.