Michigan basketball will play Friday night in Big Ten Tournament as the No. 3 seed
Michigan basketball’s loss at Michigan State moved the Wolverines from the No. 2 to No. 3 seed in the Big Ten behind Maryland. The Wolverines will face No. 14 seed USC, No. 11 seed Rutgers, or No. 6 seed Purdue as the last team to play its first game in the tournament.
U-M locked up a double bye before this weekend’s play and was guaranteed a No. 2 or No. 3 seed after Wisconsin’s stunning home loss to Penn State. The USC-Rutgers winner will play Purdue Thursday, with that winner to fact the Wolverines around 9 p.m.
“For us to have the double bye after our stretch of games late … [it was] a dense set of tough, tough challenges,” Michigan coach Dusty May said. “We’ve got to get healthy, mentally right, but that’s the beautiful thing about athletics, especially for guys that are seniors. One thing ends and another beings. Now, the postseason beings. We still have high hopes this team can reach its ceiling.”
As it looks now, though, that might already have happened earlier in the year. Michigan is playing its worst basketball at the wrong time of year, having lost three of its last four. Narrow wins at Nebraska and vs. Rutgers at home, the latter requiring an incredible run in the last 10 minutes and a last-second triple from Nimari Burnett, kept this from being a six-game losing streak, and it seems clear the Wolverines have lost their confidence.
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The guards, especially, have been bad, and they were again against the Spartans. Michigan’s top backcourt players in minutes managed 11 total points on 4-of-16 shooting, including two from point guard Tre Donaldson and 0 (to four fouls) for Roddy Gayle, Jr. The Wolverines will need to shoot much better to win even one more game this season.
“We’d like to have one game where we get that lid off it,” May said. “The last two days of practice have been our best shooting days in a long, long time. Hopefully, we’ll get some game carryover on the open shots. I think that will make life a lot better for Vlad down low, as well.”
