The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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4 THE WOLVERINE ❱ MARCH 2026 MEN'S HOOPS … HOW DO WE FINISH? With eight games left, I'll say we go 6-2, but that almost feels conservative with this team. If you deny me the right to guess that finish, I'd bump it up to 7-1 rather than going the other way. I think 6-2 or better pretty much guaran- tees us a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tourna- ment no matter what. Even 5-3 would give us a decent-to-good shot. (In that scenario, Friday and/or Saturday of the Big Ten Tour- nament might actually come into play a bit in a year where the competition for No. 1 seeds might be tougher than usual. As @ Gumbo02 teaches us every year, though, the Selection Committee generally does not like making big changes to their plan on account of conference tournament results if they can help it.) Going 4-4 or worse the rest of the way would be a major disappointment to me for this team and the standard they've set, and I just have a hard time seeing it. wolverineluke 6-2 sounds about right … Shane485 8-0. LenDaleWhite Give me a win at Illinois and a loss at Pur- due, and we win the rest and win the regular- season B1G. mjt2317 I'm thinking 5-3. Losses to Purdue, Duke, Illinois. UMfan1525 Going through at Purdue, Duke, at Illinois, and MSU, plus a sneaky Iowa road trip with only 1 loss would be extremely impressive and mean we're finishing the regular season at an incredible 29-2. Hail_Blue • At Purdue • Duke in D.C. • At Illinois These are the only games we could lose but we rise to the challenge the most in the biggest games. I think we might lose one and could win all three. Two losses would sur- prise me, but road games in the Big Ten are always tough. If we get in bad foul trouble and have an off shooting night and our op- ponent shoots lights-out, it's a recipe for an upset. GoBlue04 We lost to Wisconsin in Crisler. We absolutely could lose to MSU in Crisler or Iowa on the road. We will be favored in both. We have no business losing to Northwest- ern, UCLA or Minnesota. 6-2 is a lock for the No. 1 seed in Chicago. MiamiWolv SIGNING DAY AND OTHER THOUGHTS Completely forgot about Signing Day today until a few minutes ago. Times change. Used to be the most exciting day of the year for me. OK, probably just second after the Saturday of The Game. Not anymore. Early Signing Day changed all that starting about 8 years ago. But now, even Early Signing Day is somewhat anticli- mactic. Kids lock into schools far earlier than before. Plus, with the portal and NIL, high school recruiting, while still very important, is no longer the defining leading indicator of future program success. So, the day that I once thought of as "Com- mitmas" is now just another day. I believe we will be signing four players today: Ernest Nunley, Jacob Baggett, Ndi Etta and Jack Treutelaar. Salesi Moa is not on the list, as he was already enrolled at Utah and transferred to Michigan through the portal. A few other thoughts: Time flies. As another poster noted, yester- day was 10 years since Signing of the Stars. What a different era. Other college coaches were up in arms over Jim Harbaugh promot- ing the program like that and doing things like satellite camps. It all seems so innocuous and quaint compared to this modern era of the game. Nice hoops wins against MSU and Ne- braska. Not easy games, but real quality wins. Hard to imagine that when Michigan hoops was in peak form this season Sherrone Moore was still the head football coach at Michigan. U-M destroyed Villanova on Dec. 9, the night before Moore was fired, and a few days after the team's dominant Vegas run. A lot has happened at Michigan, and in the world, since then. Jim_S ❱ Be Heard! Send your letters to: Wolverine Letters P.O. Box 2331 Durham, NC 27702 Or email: mark.panus@on3.com Letters may be edited for clarity or length. Letters/From Our Website: TheWolverine.com March 2026 • Vol. 37, No. 9 ISSN 1048-9940 TheWolverine.com Senior Editor Chris Balas Senior Writer John Borton Staff Writers Clayton Sayfie Anthony Broome Ethan McDowell Drew Hallett Contributing Editors Stu Coman Matt Herb Cathy Jones Chris Riffer Steve Downey Layout And Design Jeanette Blankenship, Chris Miller, Shelby Cragg Contributing Photographers Lon Horwedel Per Kjeldsen, Ty Kornblue Cover Photos EJ Holland Editor & Publisher Mark Panus Business Analyst Sarah Boone Circulation Coordinator Beverly Taylor Advertising Sales Maria Taustine (502) 552-4390 Customer Service Shelby Cragg, Macduff Henry, Cathy Jones (800) 421-7751 The Wolverine is published monthly. A one-year (12 issues) subscription is $74.99. The Wolverine is printed at The Papers in Milford, Ind. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Wolverine, P.O. Box 2331, Durham, NC 27702. Periodical postage paid at Durham, NC 27702 and additional offices. 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