Why Michigan basketball can make March Madness run to the Final Four
INDIANAPOLIS — Pathway, shmathway. This isn't about anyone else. This is about Michigan basketball.
The Wolverines were officially placed by the NCAA tournament selection committee as a 5-seed in the South Region of March Madness, matched up against 12-seed UC San Diego where they will play in Denver on Thursday.
Michigan has as much positive vibes as anyone, after winning the Big Ten tournament championship Sunday.
Coach Dusty May's group was in first place in one of the two deepest leagues all the way until the final days, but it just rediscovered its swagger over the weekend in Indianapolis. Michigan hammered Purdue, outlasted Maryland and gutted past Wisconsin 59-53 on Sunday as the underdog in each game.
The good feelings are rising again at just the right time in Ann Arbor, which has us asking the question: Will this team make a run to the Final Four? Sure it can, but just about everything will need to go right. Here's how it can happen.
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Unstoppable bigs
There's a not-very-difficult argument to be made that the best frontcourt in the nation wears maize and blue.
The duo of Vladislav Goldin and Danny Wolf, also known as "Area-51," has been essentially unstoppable this year, with Goldin earning first-team All-Big Ten honors and Wolf being named to the second team. Goldin has scored in double figures in 25 of his past 27 games, currently averaging a career-high 16.9 points and 6.8 rebounds.
Wolf, meanwhile, is a walking double-double, averaging 13.3 points and a team-high 9.9 rebounds per game.
Not only has Goldin been to a Final Four during his time at FAU, but last year Wolf won an NCAA tournament game when 13-seed Yale knocked off 4-seed Auburn (don't remind Tre Donaldson, who was on the losing end).
Though there's not a ton of depth in the front court beyond them, the third piece is an important one, the energizer bunny Will Tschetter, who is the team's de-facto leader. Few teams in the nation have been able to keep up with U-M and its unique 4-5 ball screen. Though the Big Ten seemingly figured it out late in the regular season, it's such a unique action that teams which haven't prepared for it much are more likely to struggle against it.
Goldin is one of the best finishers at the rim while Wolf is one of the best passers in the nation, regardless of size. The fact that they're both 7-feet tall simply makes it all the tougher to stop.
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Guards continue to find their way
After his game-winning shot against Maryland, Donaldson sat in front of his locker inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse and told reporters he'd never lost his confidence this year. While he should be taken at face value, the numbers in February seemed to paint a different picture.
Prior to the Big Ten tournament, Donaldson had a stretch of seven consecutive games where he scored fewer than 12 points and in four of those games had three assists or fewer. For perspective, Donaldson had scored double figures in 13 of 14 games prior to that with nine games of four assists or more.
It's not just Donaldson finding his way again, but Roddy Gayle Jr. seems to have some confidence back, too. Late in the first half of the semifinal vs. the Terrapins, Gayle Jr. drilled a 3-pointer from the left wing to knot the game at 34, breaking a streak of 18 consecutive misses from long range.
A coach who's been there
Last but not least, it always helps to have a man who's gone on a run before in March. Dusty May is exactly that.
After knocking off Memphis 73-63 in the 8-9 game, May and Florida Atlantic were given a gift of playing 16-seed Farleigh Dickinson (which had knocked off Purdue) and the Owls rolled them by 21. Then, FAU won a nail-biter against 4-seed Tennessee, 76-74, before it survived Kansas State (which knocked off Michigan State in OT in the Sweet 16) 79-76 to go to the Final Four.
From there, FAU nearly made it to the title game, but fell by one point to San Diego State, 72-71.
May has showed that he has the goods to lead a team on a run in March and this past weekend showed Michigan is far from ready to call its season over. Sure, the regular season didn't end the way anybody around the program hoped, but if the immediate responses is any indication, any team that wants to try and eliminate U-M will have to play its A-game.
Michigan has some flaws. The Wolverines have shot worse than 35% from long range in 13 of 14 games going into Sunday, have the worst turnover rate in the Big Ten and didn't dominate the glass this year (though it had by far its best game of the season in that capacity vs. the Terps on Saturday).
U-M also seems to have that magic. Nimari Burnett hit a prayer to beat Rutgers and Donaldson finished a layup at the buzzer for two of U-M's last three wins, otherwise the Wolverines would likely be a 5-seed, or perhaps a 6.
It won't be easy. UC San Diego is tough and Texas A&M and Yale both pose their own problems in round two. Get past that and a likely date with No. 1 overall seed Auburn before a potential rematch against Michigan State or 3-seed Iowa State.
The Wolverines have some juice, are playing well and believe in themselves. Do not count out a March run.
Tony Garcia is the Michigan Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan basketball can make March Madness run to Final Four 2025
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