INDIANAPOLIS — Are you prepared for Sunday’s championship sport of the Big Ten men’s basketball tournament?
Michigan. Wisconsin. Authentic 7 convention members. Let’s social gathering prefer it’s 1896, folks.
Maryland nearly broke by way of to the ultimate for the primary time, however the Wolverines’ Tre Donaldson refused to let it occur. The blindingly quick guard inbounded the ball to teammate Vlad Goldin with 5.3 seconds left, obtained it again and raced 80 toes for a left-handed layup in heavy site visitors that gained it 81-80 on the buzzer.
“He had a operating begin, and Tre was a five-star soccer recruit,” a delighted coach Dusty Could stated.
TRE DONALDSON WINS IT FOR MICHIGAN WITH SECONDS LEFT 😱
The Wolverines take down Maryland to advance to the Large Ten Championship! pic.twitter.com/jh7KEnFEfR
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) March 15, 2025
Robust luck for the second-seeded Terrapins, who had the late lead — after clutch free throws from freshman Derik Queen (31 factors) — and nearly an opportunity to attain an enormous one for all of the newbies. Not one of the Large Ten’s enlargement faculties, beginning with Penn State and together with Nebraska, Rutgers and Maryland — to not point out UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington — has gained this 27-year-old event.
After all, the identical could possibly be stated of Indiana, Minnesota and Northwestern, however who’s retaining rating?
In case you have been questioning which seven faculties shaped the unique model of the convention, right here goes: Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Northwestern, Purdue, Wisconsin and all people’s favourite basketball superpower, the College of Chicago.
Fifth-seeded Wisconsin, which nipped top-seeded Michigan State 77-74 within the different semifinal, is within the Large Ten last for the tenth time, essentially the most for any faculty. The Badgers have gained the event thrice, trailing Michigan State (six), Illinois (4) and Ohio State (4). Michigan, the second seed this time, gained it back-to-back in 2017 and 2018.
The Wolf-erine exhibits up massive
Glencoe 7-footer Danny Wolf was nice for the Wolverines, scoring 21 factors and flattening 14 rebounds. Fellow 7-footer Goldin was simply as stellar, with 25 and 10. Collectively, they helped their workforce outrebound the Terps by an nearly unheard-of margin of 41-18.
Wolf transferred in from Yale throughout the offseason, whereas Goldin got here from Florida Atlantic and Donaldson from Auburn. Simply one other good workforce with plenty of new items from the switch portal. They’re all over the place.
“I believe after we all obtained to campus 10 months in the past, we knew precisely what we may do and what we could possibly be,” Wolf stated.
We’re recent out
Queen and Michigan State’s Jase Richardson have been the final ones standing from one of many extra outstanding teams of Large Ten freshmen to come back round in fairly a while.
Rutgers’ Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey misplaced immediately, to USC. Illinois’ Kasparas Jakucionis and Will Riley went down within the quarterfinals in opposition to Maryland. All 4 of these guys, plus Queen and Richardson, are projected as NBA first-round picks this 12 months. Some mock drafts have all 5 going within the high 10 picks.
