Michigan needed a hero against Penn State and Tre Donaldson delivered

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – The Michigan Wolverines found themselves in an unenviable situation on Monday night, staring down the barrel of a third loss in four games during a January slump.

Instead, it got some much-needed late-game heroics from junior point guard Tre Donaldson in a 76-72 win over Penn State. He went on a personal 7-0 run to end the game and finished the night with 21 points, 7 assists, 4 steals and no turnovers.

That is a far cry from the game he played in last Friday’s 91-64 loss at Purdue, ending that game with one assist and 6 turnovers. Michigan head coach Dusty May has called Donaldson’s number a few times in clutch moments this year, but he had a signature moment on Monday evening.

RELATED:
• Five takeaways from Michigan’s win over Penn State: Wolverines found a way late, led by Tre Donaldson
• Dusty May on Michigan’s great escape vs. PSU – ‘our success isn’t going to look perfect’

What a final 1:45!
Dub No. 15!#GoBlue pic.twitter.com/pKDXkYctOK

— Michigan Men's Basketball (@umichbball) January 28, 2025

“Tre’s had a couple end-of-game situations,” May told the media. “I think it was the last game, overtime game here where he got to the rim and it just didn’t drop. Made a really nice play three or four-footer that hung on the rim and it didn’t drop. For him to still have the confidence to want to take the big shots… I mean his pull-up off the sideline out of bounds was a high-level shot. He elevated, raised up, knocked it in and then the crowd really got into it when he made it. I thought defensively because of the energy in the building it elevated our defense, it distracted them and they made a turnover.

“He continues to get better, especially coming off the ankle injury where we didn’t think he was going to play in [Los Angeles]. He’s still not 100% but he’s getting closer and closer. We need his leadership, we need his ability to generate plays outside of our offense.”

Donaldson’s heroics came on a night when Michigan was in a “survive and advance”-type of situation. Graduate center Vlad Goldin was ill and limited to 16 minutes, while fellow bigs Danny Wolf and Will Tschetter fought through foul trouble and inconsistencies in the game. Someone had to step up, and U-M’s starting point guard answered the call.

“We talk about it all the time,” Donaldson said. “I’m gonna have a bad game. Danny’s gonna have a bad game. Vlad’s gonna have a bad game. But us three, we just gotta have each other’s backs. We talk about it all the time and I was there to have his back tonight. That’s what teammates do. And I feel like if we continue to do that, it’s gonna be hard to stop us.”

Donaldson played a near-perfect game in terms of manning the point guard spot and running the Michigan offense. The ability to turn the page from the turnover fest at Purdue was a steadying presence needed on Monday night.

“I don’t like turning the ball over,” Donaldson said. “I try not to express it in the games, but it really like bothers me. The Purdue really bothered me. So it was just something that was harping on just making a simple pass and making the right passes and not trying to do too much, getting my guys shots where they needed. I gotta give it to my guys. They made plays, making dunks, making threes. The assists come from them.

Donaldson has the Michigan coaching staff’s full trust, and limiting turnovers from the lead guard spot are a trait May said could determine the team’s fate.

“It shows that he was conscious of value in the basketball of he’s a smart guy,” May said. “The turnovers have been that’s been our thing this year as discouraging as anything, I guess more so because we shoot the ball well typically. We’re top 30 in offensive rebounding until tonight we probably dropped off a little bit tonight and we feel like when our defense is set we’re a real sound, good quality defensive team and turnovers negate all three of the things that you do well as a team so if we’re going to max out as a group then we’re going to take care of the basketball better.”

Above all else, Michigan getting back in the win column on Monday helped get the bad taste of the loss last weekend out of its mouth. Finding a way to grit through another conference game could have been a major swing moment for team morale.

“We got beat [by Purdue],” Donaldson said. “We got beat badly. But we know who we are. That was out of character, honestly. They gotta come and play us again. We’re looking forward to that. It was just all about response. How can we respond to the little things we’ve talked about after the game? Physicality, stuff like that.

“You got to protect home court and steal some steal some games on the road. And I feel like we’ve just continued to protect our home court, continue to steal some games on the road. We still got a chance at this.

“I don’t think it was a season-saver at all. I think it was a, it was a, it was a booster.”