Fifth-seeded Michigan basketball is set to tip-off against No. 12 seed UC San Diego Thursday at 10 p.m. on TBS in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The Wolverines are coming off a Big Ten tournament title, but they are one of the most popular picks for an upset.
The Tritons are entering March Madness on a 15-game win streak, which is the longest in the country, and a 30-4 overall record.
Michigan basketball previews first round matchup in March Madness
Several Michigan team members, both players and staff, have experience in the NCAA tournament. Just two years ago, head coach Dusty May and center Vladislav Goldin went to the final four with Florida Atlantic. Goldin said the team has been trying to be present.
“We all try to emphasize that its the biggest event in basketball, so it’s just take one game at a time and don’t overlook anything,” Goldin said. “Just enjoy the moment, play one game, and what’s going to happen (will) happen.”
UC San Diego has the least amount of offensive turnovers in the country (8.7 per game), and is also top ten in forcing turnovers on defense (16 per game). It could spell trouble for the Wolverines, as they have struggled in giving the ball away throughout the season.
Michigan forward Danny Wolf said the team focused on hanging on to the ball over the past couple weeks.
“UC San Diego is a great defensive team,” Wolf said. “… They do a really good job at off-ball steals and forcing turnovers. I think we did a much better job protecting the ball throughout the Big Ten tournament.
“… These last few days in practice we’ve really just been focusing on ball security. We’re capable of it, and it’s just not having the unforced turnovers.”
After the regular season ended with three-straight losses, not many people expected the Wolverines to be a factor in postseason tournaments. Michigan guard Tre Donaldson was a key piece in the Big Ten title run, and he said the team is gelling at the right time.
“I would say our togetherness,” Donaldson said of what could translate from the conference tournament. “Coming into the Big Ten tournament off of three tough losses, we were desperate for a win. Just getting our team camaraderie back. Just being able to go and win big games like that, the Big Ten has prepared us for moments like this with different types of games.
“… I feel like we have a very seasoned group that’ll be ready for anything that’s thrown at us come (tonight).”
So, how can the Wolverines get by a team that has the ability to expose their biggest weakness? May said it’ll be figured out on the hardwood.
“… We managed the turnovers really well in game one, and we put probably 75 percent of our practice time the last five or ten practices on certain things that we thought would help with that issue,” May said. “And we thought, ‘did we fix it? Is the problem solved? And then obviously the next night I think we had five in the first four minutes and it was obvious that the problem wasn’t solved. But we were dominant on the glass in that game against Maryland. We outrebounded them 47-18.
“… The third game we went back and really took care of the basketball well again. We didn’t make shots, and our defense was the best it’s been all season. We just take a lot of pride. We don’t know what it’s going to look like (tonight), we have no idea how we’re going to win this game but we believe that we’re going to. The game is going to tell us something, and we’re equipped because of our league, because of our pre-conference schedule, to figure out a way to win that game.”
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