Michigan MBB Has Won 11 One-Possession Games. That Will Make Them Dangerous In March | John Simmons
If you want a taste of what March Madness games are like, just watch the Michigan men's basketball team.
On Thursday night, the No. 15 Wolverines hosted the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in Ann Arbor. With just under four seconds on the clock, the visitors held an 82-81 lead, and Michigan had the ball with a last gasp hope of winning the game. Danny Wolf got the ball to Nimari Burnett, who sunk a deep three from the wing to give his team an 84-82 win.
Teams win close games every now and again throughout a season, it’s bound to happen. But for the Wolverines, tight finishes are a regular occurrence.
Including last night’s win over Rutgers, Michigan has won 22 games on the season. Some of those were blowout games in non-conference play against weak schools, but not all of them have been cakewalks. Of those 22 games, 11 of them have been nail-biters. Michigan has beaten:
- Wisconsin by 3 (on the road)
- Iowa by 2 (at home)
- Northwestern by 4 (home)
- Penn State by 4 (home)
- Rutgers by 3 (road)
- Oregon by 4 (road)
- Indiana by 3 (road)
- Purdue by 2 (home)
- Ohio State by 3 (road)
- Nebraska by 3 (road)
- Rutgers by 2 (last night at home)
Beginning with Northwestern and on down the list, all of those matchups have come in an 11-game stretch, including six in a row (Penn State to Ohio State).
You could make an argument that Michigan is inches away from being a mediocre team, and that’s fair. Further bolstering that viewpoint is the fact that some of these teams are quite bad, and the Wolverines have let them hang around. In any sport, you gotta beat the teams worse than you in convincing fashion.
Michigan Wolverines center Vladislav Goldin (50) drives the lane against Rutgers Scarlet Knights defense during the first half of the NCAA basketball game at Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor, Mich., Thursday, February 27 2025.
However, the other side of this argument is that while these games are scary close, Michigan is still finding ways to win. If they had won only three close games this season, I’d say they were just getting lucky. However, winning 11 one-possession games takes more than luck, it takes a team committed to not folding in crunch time and being determined to finish on top.
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That’s what Michigan is: a gritty, talented, well-coached basketball team that knows how to win ugly/close games. When it comes to March, the only thing that matters is surviving and advancing.
There is no team in the country better at surviving than Michigan, and that makes them very dangerous.