Frank Fanelli

I’m back again for another awesome recap, and this time it’s about my favorite conference, the Big Ten! As an Ohio State fan, it really does pain me to say this, but the eight-seeded Michigan Wolverines took down and pulled off another improbable upset aginst the two-seeded Wisconsin Badgers. Michigan pulled off their fourth win in four days to capture the Big Ten title and the automatic trip to the big dance.

Michigan completed a magical run to its first Big Ten Tournament title since 1998, using a swarming defense and accurate shooting to beat the two-seeded and No. 24 Wisconsin Badgers 71-56 on Sunday.

The eighth-seeded Wolverines began their journey with a scary skid off the airport runway in Michigan and ended it by overwhelming the second-seeded Badgers, who had won three straight, including their regular season finale against Minnesota…by a total of 55 points!

Between the aborted flight and their final unexpected victory, the Wolverines beat Illinois, eliminated the top-seed Purdue and sent home the No. 4 seed Minnesota. And so, the first Big Ten Tournament in the nation’s capital ended with a surprise champion cutting down the nets at Verizon Center. Like I said above Michigan won the title in 1998 but had it vacated due to NCAA sanctions.

A quick recap of the top players and stats each team before the game itself. We start with Michigan’s Derrick Walton Jr. who scored 22 points, D.J. Wilson who added 17 and Zak Irvin tallied 15 points for Michigan, which had lost 17 of its previous 20 games against Wisconsin. The Wolverines shot a solid 56 percent and were 10 for 23 from beyond the arc. Now for the losing Badgers, Bronson Koenig scored 15 points, while Nigel Hayes and Ethan Happ had 14 apiece for Wisconsin, which shot a very poor 39 percent from the field and scored only 24 points after halftime…

Five different players scored Michigan’s first five baskets, and the Wolverines went 8 for 12 from the field in taking a 19-13 lead. After Wisconsin closed to 21-20, Walton drilled three successive 3-pointers to increase the margin to double digits. Then Wolverines then went scoreless for nearly 4 minutes, and Wisconsin closed the half with a 12-3 run. The game was almost all Michigan in the first half until the Badgers made a little run and pulled to within a point as the Wolverines were winning 33-32 at the half.

Then the Wolverines took control at the outset of the second half, holding Wisconsin to without a field goal for the 8 minutes to turn a 33-32 halftime lead into a 44-34 advantage. Wisconsin went 0 for 8 from the field and committed four turnovers during the pivotal span which basically gave Michigan all the momentum.

After the Badgers threatened to make a game of it, Michigan had an answer to nullify anything they did. We then fast forward to when it was 51-45 before Zak Irvin and Duncan Robinson sandwiched 3-pointers around a basket by Hayes for a 10-point cushion with 3:51 left in the game. Not long after that, the thousands of Michigan fans in the large crowd began the countdown to the final buzzer. Then once that buzzer went off the fans went crazy and the players all embraced each other as they realized what they did was something truly special! The also capped their amazing game off by a huge slam by D.J. Wilson:

Big Picture:

Michigan can once again thank Derrick Walton Jr. who poured in those 22 points on 6-15 shooting, 4-9 from behind the arch, six rebounds, and seven assists. The Wolverines enjoyed a remarkable run in the tournament on the heels of a disappointing regular season in which they went 10-8 in the conference play, including terrible losses to Illinois and Ohio State. The grittiness of the NCAA Tournament should be a breeze for Wolverines after they showed how tough they were mentally and physically by playing and winning four games in four days. John Beilein turned these Wolverines into something special and it will be fun to watch them in the tourney.