INDIANAPOLIS — Just last week, Michigan basketball needed a win over Maryland on its home court in order to guarantee it had a shot at a share of a regular-season Big Ten championship.
That, it didn’t get.
But on a neutral court, Saturday in the Big Ten tournament semifinals, the third-seeded Wolverines got revenge in a major way. The Wolverines dominated the second-seeded Terrapins on the glass, in the paint and with their depth, winning each category in lopsided fashion as they took command with an 18-0 spurt covering just over five minutes of game time surrounding halftime.
But even that wasn’t safe, as Maryland came all the way back to take the lead with 5.8 seconds to play.
And then, magic: Tre Donaldson got the inbounds pass after Derik Queen’s go-ahead free-throws and went nearly 94 feet to finish a left-handed layup in traffic with 0.4 seconds left to give the Wolverines the 81-80 victory and their first berth in the Big Ten title game since losing to rival Michigan State in 2019..
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Now, Michigan (24-9) will face Wisconsin in search of its first Big Ten title since 2018 in Sunday afternoon’s final (3:30 p.m., CBS) at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
Both teams Saturday were on their second game in less than 24 hours, but given Kevin Willard’s team really only rotates six players, it was the Terps’ legs that looked shot for most of the gme. Michigan, which finished Big Ten play sixth in offensive rebounding and 12th in defensive boards, put together its best game of the year in that aspect, hammering Maryland on the glass, 47-18.
That included 18 offensive boards — which led to 18 second-chance points — much of which came from U-M’s “Area 51” combo. Danny Wolf had his second consecutive double-double, with 21 points and 14 boards, while Vlad Goldin chipped in a team-high 25 points and 10 rebounds.
Donaldson, meanwhile, finished with 12 points and nine assists, his most helpers since recording a career-high 11 vs. Western Kentucky, while Nimari Burnett scored 10, all in the first half.
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Frantic finish
Michigan punched first in the second half with Goldin making a layup and catching an alley-oop from Donaldson out of the gate. That set the tone as he swatted Julian Reese at the rim before he and Wolf made consecutive layups and then Wolf drilled a 3 from the left wing to make it a 15-point game with nearly 15 minutes to play.
Maryland scored 10 straight to get back within five, only for Michigan to use a 12-6 push of its own to get the lead back to 61-50 on a Roddy Gayle Jr. reverse layup. (Gayle, meanwhile, scored nine points and, most importantly, hit his first 3-pointer since Jan. 27 at Purdue, snapping an 0-for-18 streak and 1-for-26 stretch in 2025.)
But Gayle’s layup would be U-M’s last bucket for more than seven minutes.
Michigan scored eight straight points from the free throw line but it missed 10 consecutive shots. Meanwhile, Maryland made seven of eight, including a 3-pointer by Queen before a spinning baseline drive to take the lead, 62-61, and cap a 12-0 run in less than three minutes of play.
That’s when U-M’s work from the free throw line began as Wolf and Goldin combined to make eight consecutive tries to keep U-M within striking distance, before Goldin hit a layup to knot the game at 71.
On the next possession, he drilled a contested 3 from the right wing — his first since Jan. 19 — only for Maryland to knot the game at 74 from the line.
After Goldin hit a layup, Queen tied it with a contested finish with 43 seconds left. That was followed by Donaldson hitting the biggest shot of the year — to that point, anyway — as he came around a Goldin screen and drilled a 3 for a 79-76 lead with 27.9 seconds left.
After Reese hit a layup, Wolf was fouled with 12.6 seconds left but missed the front end to set Maryland up for a final look. Queen was fouled by Rubin Jones with 5.8 seconds left and hit both free throws for a shortlived lead.
First-half back-and-forth
Both sides opened the game shooting well and found themselves tied at 10 after Nimari Burnett and Ja’Kobi Gillespie traded long balls on consecutive possessions.
The Terps’ lead ballooned to seven, 23-16, as U-M’s turnovers mounted and a bad pass from Jones led to a Maryland runout and transition 3. However, U-M responded with a 13-2 push from there, highlighted by back-to-back Wolf offensive rebounds and putbacks before Gayle slashed down the lane and then sent a kickout to Burnett for a corner 3. That was followed by Gayle hitting a fadeaway off glass, Goldin hitting a pair from the line and Burnett making a layup.
Maryland responded with a 7-0 run in 1:01 to re-take the lead, only for Michigan to end the half on a 9-2 spurt, capped by Gayle catching an alley-oop in the closing seconds to send U-M into the break with the momentum and a four-point lead.
Next up for Michigan basketball
U-M will face fifth-seeded Wisconsin in the Big Ten final; the Wolverines upset the Badgers, 67-64, in Madison, Wisconsin, on Dec. 3, behind 44 combined points from Goldin and Wolf. Michigan is looking for its fourth Big Ten tourney title (counting a vacated title in 1998), and its first since 2018, while Wisconsin seeks its fourth title, and its first since 2015.
Michigan basketball bracketology
After that, U-M will have to wait for Sunday’s selection show (6 p.m., CBS) to find out the rest of its March Madness plans, though regardless of the result, it’s certain to return to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2022. The Wolverines entered Saturday widely projected as a 5-seed, according to the averages compiled by Bracket Matrix.
Tony Garcia is the Michigan Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
