'The Gamer' Tre Donaldson steps up again in the clutch for Michigan

The Michigan Wolverines advanced in the NCAA Tournament via a 68-65 win over the UC San Diego Tritons due in large part to late-game heroics from junior point guard Tre Donaldson, who hit a triple with a little over two minutes to go to put his team ahead for good.

Donaldson is no stranger to an upset bid in the NCAA Tournament with his Auburn Tigers going down to the No. 13 seed Yale last season. But that is not an experience or distant memory that he clicked back into on Thursday night.

He knew what the moment meant for this team and to keep the gritty Michigan squad alive and heading into the Round of 32.

“It’s not necessarily anything about last year, it’s about what this means to my teammates and I,” Donaldson said at the podium after the win. “We’re desperate to win. We want to continue to play. We don’t want our season to be over.

“When it’s time to make big plays, when the opportunity presents itself, I just want to attack it as best as possible if it’s presenting itself to me. I want my teammates to do the same thing. We’re just trying to win. That’s what it comes down to. Last year is last year. We now have to worry about be in the moment, be where our feet are.”

Donaldson had been up and down for Michigan down the stretch, but made several clutch, winning plays in the Big Ten Tournament, headlined by a game-winning layup against Maryland in the semifinal.

“Go with who you trust,” Donaldson said in the locker room. “They continue to go with me and they trust me and I’m gonna continue to step up and do it big for my team. That’s the biggest thing. Just continue to step up for my team. So we continue to win.”

Michigan led by as many as 15 points in the contest, but trailed for the first time just before Donaldson’s three-pointer at the 2:13 mark. U-M knew a push would come from the Tritons at some point and when the moment came, it was time to lock back in.

 ”Here we go,” Donaldson said of the mindset. “It’s gonna be closer. Here we go. But we found ways to win it. So we just gotta continue to do that. I mean, this is March Madness. It’s been going on for who knows how long. We’ve seen so many different types of games.”

“That’s a great team. They won 30 games for a reason. Being able to cut [the deficit], that’s just a testimony to their whole season. I feel like we came together in these past four games, and we just gotta continue to do it, and we want to continue to dance.”

Donaldson has owned his role with the team this year and feels like Michigan is giving him a chance to play the best ball of his career.

 ”This is who I am,” Donaldson said. “My teammates are trusting me and my ability to make shots and it is just it’s great. My confidence is great. This is the best basketball I’ve played in my life. The biggest thing I feel like that’s translated to me playing that way and being able to make big shots is these guys around me.

“These guys are just instilling confidence in me and relying on me. For me to know that I mean that much to them is amazing.”

Donaldson has been tabbed “The Gamer” but some of his former teammates, and the nickname has stuck. He hopes he continues to get the chance to make those moments happen.

“It started at Auburn with [Bruce Pearl],” Donaldson said. “He is who he is. He was hard on me, but because he saw something in me. He didn’t like how I practiced. But in the games, he loved how I played.

So he said, ‘He’s not a practice guy. He’s a gamer.’ I came to Michigan, and Dusty was like, the same thing. In his first couple of practices, he was like, ‘You’re not the same guy in practice. When we compete, you compete, but in practice, you’re not just a gamer.’ That’s just coming up, stepping up in big-time games and wanting to play in games regardless.”

Michigan has another big game on tap Saturday when it takes on the No. 4 seed Texas A&M in a 5:15 p.m. ET tipoff from Denver. CBS will broadcast the game with Brad Nessler, Brendan Haywood and Dana Jacobson on the call.