The Wolverine

April 2017

The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports

Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/798849

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 17 of 67

18 THE WOLVERINE APRIL 2017 BY JOHN BORTON C onfetti rained down from the ceiling of the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. John Beilein couldn't keep the grin off his face as he watched his team snip down the nets and joined in. Beilein's Wolverines had just com- pleted one of the most historic stretches ever by a Michigan basketball team. Preceded by a plane wreck that could have proven horrific, U-M's Big Ten Tournament run became nothing short of astounding. It was also unprecedented. Never before, in the 20-year history of the Big Ten Tournament, had a No. 8 seed risen up to hoist the huge trophy at the end. Iowa, as a No. 6 seed in 2001, previ- ously held the record for lowest-seeded tournament champion. "We had a conversation after ev- erything went down," senior Zak Ir- vin said, of a chat he engaged in with roommate, classmate and Big Ten Tour- nament MVP Derrick Walton Jr. "Once we landed in D.C., we agreed that, why can't this be the greatest story ever told? Everybody had that mental- ity: Why not us? "When we were tired and fatigued, whatever it might be, that was the extra push we needed to win this champion- ship." When everything went down. Everything, in this case, involved a DC-9 carrying Michigan's players, coaches, auxiliary staff, cheerleaders, band, etc. It didn't go down as much as it never got up. The jet, attempting to take off from Willow Run Airport near Ypsilanti, Mich., the day before the tournament began, couldn't lift off because of fierce crosswinds that gusted to 50 miles per hour that day. The jet skidded off the runway, through a fence, across an open area and finally onto a huge ditch. The scramble to get everyone off proved both successful and deeply af- fecting, emotionally, in the days that followed. Beilein admitted it was tough for everyone to shake the what might have been. He spoke of hurtling 200 miles an hour down the runway, what might have occurred had the plane gotten slightly into the air, a little farther out, then been slammed back to earth. He also mused about what did happen, with "gas fumes coming in on every- body" amid the wreck, and a "big pop" when they finally shut down the en- gines. No, this wasn't going to be an ordi- nary Big Ten Tournament. What followed the crash was stun- ning. What preceded it all made the result doubly astonishing. Michigan started the Big Ten season 2-4 and reeling. The Wolverines opened with a loss at Iowa in overtime, in a game they could have ended with a final possession in regulation. They barely survived at home against Penn State (72-69), then lost at home to Maryland. They then found themselves embarrassed at Illinois, run off the court by an 85-69 score and called a "white-collar program" by Il- linois' Maverick Morgan. The Wolverines pushed back against that label, winning three of the next four, including taking their lunch buck- ets and beating the Illini senseless in Ann Arbor. But then, they experienced their season's greatest (on-court) crisis moments. They lost to Michigan State at the Breslin Center, 70-62. No shame there, although the Spartans wound up a team scrambling for a spot in the NCAA Tournament at 19-14. The next game caused fire alarms to go off inside Crisler Center. A miser- able Ohio State squad (17-15 overall and 7-11 in the Big Ten) lumbered into Crisler, beat the Wolverines bloody on the boards (42-24) and left with a 70-66 win. That left the Wolverines stunned at 14-9 overall, 4-6 in the Big Ten, and written off by many. Asked directly about Michigan's ef- fort following the loss to OSU, Beilein — who'd spent his press conference finding all the positives he could about his team — became very blunt. "I thought it was okay, considering who we are," he said. "There are no junkyard dogs out there — we know that." At that point, many onlookers be- BIG TEN CHAMPIONS The Wolverines Make A Stirring Run To A Title John Beilein won the first Big Ten tourna- ment championship of his 10-year tenure in Ann Arbor amid a host of obstacles, includ- ing the team's much-publicized plane acci- dent the day before the tournament began. PHOTO COURTESY MICHIGAN ATHLETIC MEDIA RELATIONS

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of The Wolverine - April 2017