Hail to the … champions.
Michigan basketball continued its best regular-season start in program history on Tuesday, Feb. 24 and now has some hardware to show for it. The Wolverines knocked off Minnesota, 77-67, at Crisler Center to guarantee themselves a share of the 2025-26 Big Ten regular-season title.
A game the Wolverines were favored to win by 22 a few hours before tipoff often wasn’t pretty. Turnovers, missed defensive assignments and a general malaise left U-M leading by four at the half and just two points early in the second.
Repeatedly on Tuesday, as the Wolverines’ led neared double digits, the depleted Golden Gophers found an answer. That is until Elliot Cadeau, Trey McKenney and L.J. Cason canned 3-pointers on four straight possessions (over 2:24 of game time) to build a 14-point lead with 7:27 remaining.
Cadeau scored a game-high 15, while Cason added 14 (including four 3-pointers) and McKenney − who drilled four 3-pointers of his own − scored 12. Aday Mara added 10 points, with eight coming in the second half.
Big Ten championship race
With the win, the Wolverines (26-2, 16-1 Big Ten) locked up at least a share of the regular-season title for the 16th time overall. Perhaps more importantly for this season, U-M also locked up a triple-bye in next month’s Big Ten Tournament, meaning they’ll just need to win three games in three days – starting on Friday, March 13 at United Center in Chicago – to claim the tournament’s auto-bid to March Madness (and, potentially, a No. 1 overall seed in the tourney).
Next up for Michigan basketball
Of course, before they get to the Windy City, the Wolverines would like to take the Big Ten title outright, which they can do with a road win over No. 11 Illinois (22-6, 13-4) on Friday (8 p.m., Fox). Popping the champagne (or your non-alcoholic celebrational drink of choice) in Champaign might be easier said than done, as the Wolverines haven’t topped the Illini at State Farm Center since January 2019. That’s a run of four straight losses there, including a 29-point loss in February 2024 and a four-point loss in double OT in March 2023. If the Wolverines don’t get it done at Illinois, they’ve got a road game at Iowa and a finale at home against Michigan State.
Making enough plays
After failing to put away Minnesota – which entered with only a virtual seven-man rotation due to injuries – in the first half, it looked like more of the same in the second, as Cade Tyson (who finished with a game-high 20 points) put together the rare four-point play to make it 39-37 with 17:17 remaining.
(How shorthanded were the Gophers? Michigan’s reserves outscored Minnesota’s, 35-0 – mostly because first-year coach Niko Medved brought in just one player off the bench: freshman Kai Shinholster, who attempted no shots and had one turnover in 7 minutes of game time.)
But slowly, slowly, the Wolverines stretched the lead, trading their 3s for Minnesota 2s and the occasional free throw.
A lob from Cason to Mara made it a nine-point game, followed by a Cason runout for a soft dunk. Still, Minnesota clawed back within four points with 10:19 left before Cadeau, McKenney and Cason binged on 3s.
Michigan drilled a blistering nine of 18 3s in the second half. Minnesota ripped the nets too, with 12 3s (including eight in the second half), but it wasn’t enough to keep up with the Wolverines, who averaged 1.50 points per possession after the break, with assists on 12 of 16 baskets on 59.3% shooting.
Zone befuddles U-M early
Minnesota’s 2-3 zone gave the Wolverines fits in the first half, despite Michigan rotating who served as its target in the weak spot at the high post. There were sloppy turnovers – a Nimari Burnett lob for Morez Johnson Jr. that hit the rim, a bounce pass out of bounds from Mara and a charge on Yaxel Lendeborg when he tried to make something happen – before Roddy Gayle Jr. finally broke through with seven straight U-M points midway through the first half on a variety of finishes: a slam on an underhand pass from Mara, a three-point play off an offensive board and, finally, a floater on a hook in front of the hoop for a 19-18 lead.
After the Wolverines burrowed into the paint, the Gophers had to sag a little deeper, which opened room on the outside for Nimari Burnett and McKenney to drill three consecutive 3s for a 28-20 lead with 2:56 before the half.
The defense also turned up at this time, too. McKenney had two nice possessions in a row, first jumping a passing lane for a steal, then sticking on the block and forcing a tough floater for a miss. Then, U-M’s full-court press led to Cadeau forcing a turnover on the sideline.
Minnesota, which started 8-for-14, missed eight shots in a row, including a swat from behind by Johnson before he capped off U-M’s 11-0 run moments later with a thunderous dunk.
The rout wasn’t quite on, but Minnesota’s hopes of a February upset slowly dwindled away.
Tony Garcia is the Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan basketball gets going in 2nd half to bury Minnesota