Wolverine Watch: One Meaningful Championship
In the end, they left no doubt. The Big Ten champions treated the league’s ninth-place team like one more roadkill annoyance on the road to No. 1.
The starters celebrated early, coming off the floor to hugs and high-fives. Senior captain Isaiah Livers dropped to pushup position and kissed the block “M” at midcourt.
The Wolverines beat the Spartans, 69-50, but they did much more than that. They beat COVID. They beat a 23-day stretch of forced idleness, when they desperately wanted to play. They went from unranked in the preseason to No. 2 in the nation, with more to come.
In the end, they jumped around like T-ball kids on their way to ice cream as confetti rained down at Crisler Center.
Big Ten champions.
“Man! It’s a great feeling!” exulted sophomore forward Franz Wagner. “I’ve never cut a net like this before. There are so many good teams in this league that it’s never guaranteed, but that’s why you work so hard in the summer — for this to come true.”
“This is amazing,” senior guard Chaundee Brown Jr. concurred, while keeping an eye to the future. “We have an amazing team, we all worked together as a team, and I can’t thank everyone enough. My goal was to come here and win, and this is part of it. We’ve got two more rings [to go]. We’re still working on it.”
Illinois coach Brad Underwood blustered that there’s no Big Ten title that means anything this year. But don’t tell it to this crew, who went out and nailed one down.
“It means a lot,” Livers insisted. “My four years, I’d never gotten a regular-season championship. This was definitely on my checklist, returning to Ann Arbor, to get it outright. We worked very hard, talked about it, put it into action.
“We’ve still got a journey ahead of us. We’re going to stay focused.”
Juwan Howard will make sure of it. When someone mentioned the prospect of observers saying Sunday’s rematch with MSU won’t mean much, the head coach nearly spit his water.
It means a lot, he assured. But so did this. Howard tucked some post-game confetti into his pocket, just to remind himself of the sweetness of the moment. He danced, having earned the right.
“It means a lot,” he said. “it’s gratifying. With what we all have dealt with, during this pandemic, these are very challenging times. We didn’t make excuses. We rolled up our sleeves and figured it out along the way … we continued to keep grinding and grinding.
“This is the toughest conference in college basketball, night-in and night-out. We’re always going to get every team’s best, just like they’re going to get our best. We were fortunate enough to win a Big Ten championship in the regular season.
“It’s hard doing that. It’s so hard. I remember as a player, it was very hard for us. To do it this year, it’s a beautiful moment.”
It’s not supposed to be easy to win a Big Ten championship. Michigan found out this week, going from handcuffed by Illinois to strip-searched by the Spartans for the opening 20 minutes. MSU forced eight first-half turnovers, combining their clutch and grab with U-M sloppiness.
Meanwhile, both teams made the three-point arc accessible as Tom Izzo’s dunk highlights. The Wolverines notched two threes in the first 20 minutes, the Spartans none. Michigan’s 39-28 halftime lead felt more like drug-free root canal survival than basketball artistry.
No matter. Big Ten title banners aren’t adorned with style summations or pretty points. Last men standing. No excuses. No exceptions.
Howard’s crew didn’t make any. They just dug in, reeled off a 10-0 run early in the second half, and played defense like they intended to make it a banner night.
And they did.
The Wolverines slowly squeezed the life out of Izzo’s hookers and holders in the second half, limiting them to eight points in the first 14 minutes of the second half. By the time the Spartans hit double figures, the Wolverines were clearing trophy space in the case.
Wagner dropped 19 on the Spartans, with a trio of huge three-point bombs. Freshman center Hunter Dickinson added 14, once again heading up a dug-in defense.
The Wolverines led by 28 at one point, and could have kept Izzo’s team in the 40s had the starters stayed in. Bottom line — one tough-to-secure piece of hardware stands safely tucked away.
“Our guys earned it,” Howard assured. “They earned this Big Ten championship by the belief that they have for each other.”
There’s more to come, vowed the Wolverines.
Brown put it simply: “The job’s not finished.”
---
• Talk about this article inside The Fort
• Watch our videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel
• Listen and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, The Wolverine
• Sign up for our daily newsletter and breaking news alerts
• Follow us on Twitter: @TheWolverineMag, @Balas_Wolverine, @EJHolland_TW, @AustinFox42, @JB_ Wolverine, Clayton Sayfie and @DrewCHallett
• Like us on Facebook