Despite leading by as many as 14 at one point in the second half, Michigan saw its lead dwindle down all the way to two points late in the second half. However, in similar fashion to many of their wins this season, the Wolverines came away with a close victory.
Michigan knocked off Oregon, 80-76, to improve to 17-5 overall and 9-2 in Big Ten play. Below are three takeaways from the tight victory.
Will Tschetter was uber efficient off the bench and is Michigan's best substitute
Michigan hasn't gotten much help from its bench in recent games. The starting five of Tre Donaldson, Nimari Burnett, Roddy Gayle Jr., Danny Wolf and Vlad Goldin have had to do a lot of the heavy lifting as of late.
The Wolverines' bench just isn't consistent enough to make an impact and earn valuable minutes.
But on Wednesday night against Oregon, Will Tschetter provided just the spark Michigan needed to pick up the win over the Ducks.
Tschetter scored 17 points — a season-high — on 6-of-9 shooting and 2-of-5 from beyond the arc in just 17 minutes of action.
For a redshirt junior, Tschetter possesses the perfect combination of talent and experience needed to give Michigan good bench minutes game after game. Unfortunately for the Wolverines, Tschetter is the only consistent bench contributor on the roster.
Danny Wolf might have his mojo back
Michigan forward Danny Wolf got out to an incredibly hot start when Big Ten play picked back up in the beginning of January after the first two conference games were played early in December.
The 7-foot forward dazzled on the west coast in early January with a 21-point, 13-rebound, seven-assist, six-block game against USC, and he followed it up with a 12-point, eight-rebound, six-assist game against the UCLA Bruins just three days later.
Wolf looked to be every bit of a First-Team All-Big Ten candidate, but since coming back form the west coast, the Yale transfer has struggled to showcase his abilities like he did at the beginning of the 2025 calendar year.
In the six games since Michigan's win over UCLA on Jan. 7, Wolf had only scored more than his season average of 12.2 twice. But on Wednesday night, Wolf not only stuffed the stat sheet, but he also made some highlight-reel plays while doing it.
Wolf finished Wednesday night's win with 15 points and 12 rebounds, posting his second straight double-double.
Michigan is clearly a much better team when Wolf is playing at his best, as was seen in California early in January.
It appears Wolf is once again playing at an elite level, and that will bode well for the Wolverines as they host both Purdue and Michigan State in the next 16 days.
Michigan in the hunt for the Big Ten title
Although Michigan hasn't won pretty in a few weeks, there isn't a column for pretty in the Big Ten Standings. Fortunately for the Wolverines, the Big Ten only tracks wins, and Michigan is doing pretty well in that category.
Michigan now is 9-2 in conference play, which puts the Wolverines in a tie for second place with rival Michigan State. Purdue sits 0.5 games above both teams at 10-2.
As all three teams inch closer to the end of the conference season, it's becoming increasingly more clear that three games for Michigan will go a long way in determining the outcome at the top of the standings.
Michigan will host Purdue on Tuesday, Feb. 11 and Michigan State on Friday, Feb. 21, and the Wolverines will head to East Lansing to take on the Spartans in the regular-season finale.
The Wolverines will likely need to win two of those three games to stay in contention for the regular-season Big Ten Championship. But aside from those three key games, Michigan will need to keep winning games it's expected to win.
That quest will continue on Saturday afternoon in Bloomington, Indiana, when the Wolverines take on the Indiana Hoosiers.
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