The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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MAY 2026 ❱ THE WOLVERINE 23 BY CHRIS BALAS M inutes after a disappoint- ing loss to Purdue in the B i g Te n To u r n a m e n t c h a m p i o n s h i p g a m e March 15, Michigan head coach Dusty May had already switched gears. While the Boilermakers celebrated an 80-72 upset win on the floor of Chicago's United Center, the Wolverines watched the NCAA Tournament selection show from their locker room, even though their fate had pretty much been deter- mined with an incredible regular season in which they won the Big Ten regular- season championship by four games. Unlike his mentor, the great Bob Knight, May — a former manager for the late Hall of Fame coach at Indiana — admitted he was all about winning every title possible. Sure, Knight would have preferred to capture a conference tour- nament crown, too, but he was more about the big prize in the big dance, and he made no bones about it. "That was the first couple years of the Big Ten Tournament, and I think he had fought against it," May said with a chuckle before the Wolverines left for the Windy City. "I'm not saying he was stubborn, but he could have very well had a moment of stubbornness and not wanted to give what was necessary to win the Big Ten Tournament, because it wasn't important to him." It was clear after the loss to the Boil- ermakers, however, that May was disap- pointed with his team, especially since it appeared Purdue "wanted it more" and played with more passion. They took the fight to the Wolverines, bullied them in the paint, got physical from the outset and dared officials to call fouls, and earned a banner as a result. The resultant loss was only Michi- gan's third of the season, joining a Janu- ary home loss to Wisconsin — U-M's only conference setback — and a neutral site loss in February to Duke in Wash- ington, D.C. To win it all, the Wolver- ines would have to finish 37-3, by far the best record in program history. Pundits caught up in the moment, including ESPN's Stephen A. Smith (in predicting U-M as the first No. 1 seed to lose), sud- denly started picking against them after close wins over Ohio State and Wiscon- sin before the Purdue loss. That didn't faze May and his team, the first in Big Ten history to win 19 league games and first since Indiana in 1976 to go undefeated on the road in the Big Ten (10-0). "Winning a Big Ten regular-season championship is really, really difficult," May pointed out. "And if you're able to do that, then you're probably in position to compete for Final Fours or national championships." The Wolverines did earn the No. 1 seed in the Midwest region, too, which meant going through Buffalo, Chicago and In- dianapolis to earn a title, all drivable for the U-M fan base. The Wolverines also got a relatively favorable draw for the first round with teams they could score on, starting with Howard and then the win- ner of Georgia and Saint Louis. While Big Ten teams had started to slow them down in recent weeks, grad forward Yaxel Lendeborg saw an op- portunity. "I would say we have to dictate tempo. All season long we've been struggling with coming out in the sec- ond half strong, and Purdue took ad- vantage of that," he said. "That really gave them a lot of momentum in a game where it wasn't going too good for us, and then we started playing with our backs against the wall. I feel like we got a little jittery, started losing our compo- sure a little bit. "In this tournament especially, there aren't going to be too many blowouts. So, we've got to maintain our compo- sure, stay together like we have been all year, and do whatever we can to make sure that we all play together." Lendeborg didn't know it, but he'd prove to be right — and wrong — at the same time. SETTING THE TONE IN BUFFALO It took a half in the first game, a 101- 80 win over Howard, for the Wolverines to really get their mojo back, but when they did, there was no looking back. The Bison, a winner over UMBC in a play-in game, made 10 of its 16 three-point at- tempts in the first half in shooting the lights out to keep pace, trailing only 50- 46 at the break. But Michigan was able to get anything it wanted offensively, and it seemed un- likely Howard's shooters were going to continue to keep pace. Sophomore big man Morez Johnson Jr. and senior shooting guard Roddy Gayle Jr. did their part to ensure there'd be no historic upset. Johnson became the first player in 17 seasons to finish an NCAA Tournament game with 20 or more points, 10 or more rebounds, and a perfect shooting percentage from the field in finishing with 21 points on 8-of-8 shooting. "March Roddy," meanwhile, deemed that by his teammates for his ability to raise his game in the postseason, scored 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting in a home- coming for the Niagara Falls, N.Y., na- MISSION MISSION ACCOMPLISHED Michigan Shrugs Off Big Ten Tournament Disappointment To Win It All In Dusty May's Second Year — NCAA Champs!