The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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8 THE WOLVERINE APRIL 2017 F or years, it was easy to wave off the Big Ten Tournament champion as a secondary title holder, at best. Smash, claw, battle and overcome for two months, and you're the real Big Ten boss. Get hot for the weekend, you're the HWC — the Hot Weekend Champion. So there could be charges of hy- pocrisy in boldly declaring Michi- gan BIG TEN CHAMPIONS in this space. Too bad. The Wolverines' unprecedented surge earned every accolade. First off, let's be honest. Not many HWCs ever arise in this conference party. Only one time in the history of the Big Ten Tournament had the tourney winner not come from the top four seeds going into the league showdown — before this year. That was Iowa, in 2001. They won it as a No. 6 seed. The rest of the time, one of the Big Ten's fiercest four refused to give in to any of the "anything can happen at tournament time" talk. This was different. This time, anything did happen at tournament time. Surviving a plane wreck to be around for the tourney at all? Climb- ing aboard another jet to even reach a four-day conference beat-down, where mind and body would be pushed to the limit? Come on. Storybook endings are for story books. Several Wolverines didn't want to get on the second plane at all, senior guard Derrick Walton Jr. included, following Michi- gan's well-publicized near tragedy at Willow Run Airport. Once he did, the No. 8-seeded Wol- verines rode his jet fuel to a flat-out March miracle. It started, of course, with the real miracle: families hug- ging, tears flowing freely, grasping the sweet taste of life following pet- rifying seconds in which everything could have been lost. John Beilein, coach of a Big Ten championship team — say that over and over — admitted going into the title game he hadn't shaken the hor- ror of the team's shortest flight ever. He kept thinking about what might have been, had Michigan's DC-9 lifted a bit into the air, before getting slammed back down. It has haunted him, and no doubt his players. Four days later, they held in their grasp a title tale Beilein told them they'd be reciting to their grandchildren, decades hence. "A lot of things we can't explain that happen, happen," Walton in- sisted. "We just bonded together as family. To finally do this, do some- thing that hasn't been done in so long, it's something that will stick with you for a really long time. The friendships and bonds we have with this team, it's something that's ever- lasting." Practice clothes to open in Wash- ington, D.C.? No worries … laugh all you want. The Wolverines were smil- ing over ever savory moment. Facing Big Ten champion Purdue? Well, the Boilermakers went 0-2 against the other conference champs, so there's that. Staring down Minnesota, which was playing a second straight day with the Wolverines on their third? Michigan just kept pushing on. And head-butting with the Bad- gers — arguably the Big Ten's most physical team — in the finale? If there were ever a time to concede a team just didn't have enough left in the tank on Sunday, well … The Wolverines conceded nothing. They came to win — and refused to lose. They shocked the college basketball world, becoming national news before they ever even showed up at the Big Ten Tournament, then dropping jaws from coast to coast by winning it. That's a Big Ten championship, any way you slice it. It's a moment in Michigan basketball history unlike any other. "Winning four games in four days is incredible," Beilein said. "Our message was, somebody's going to do it, why not us?" They have burned their images and names into the memory banks of Michigan fans for a long, long time. They'll hang a banner next year at Crisler Center, perhaps the most un- likely one ever. Remember, this team was 2-4 com- ing out of the gate in the Big Ten. On March 12, they were hoisting a cham- pionship trophy, to the utter shock of anyone who felt Beilein's deep frus- tration in the early part of the season. Survive and advance. That's what they did, injecting the deepest mean- ing ever into that NCAA Tournament catch phrase. "Right now, we're going to enjoy this Big Ten championship," Beilein said, after cutting down the nets with his team. "You don't get a chance this very often." You don't get this chance, in this way, ever. The Wolverines remained alive in March in every sense, per- haps the most magical Big Ten cham- pions ever. ❏ Editor John Borton has been with The Wolverine since 1991. Contact him at jborton@thewolverine.com and follow him on Twitter @JB _ Wolverine. WOLVERINE WATCH JOHN BORTON Big Ten Champs Survive And Advance In the Big Ten Tournament, Derrick Walton Jr. averaged 38.3 minutes, 20.5 points, 6.3 assists and 4.8 rebounds per game. PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN