For the first time since the 1975-76 Indiana Hoosiers, a team in the Big Ten Conference has won all of its road games in a single season. That team this year — the Michigan Wolverines.
Dusty May and his squad accomplished that feat on Thursday night following a 71-68 victory at Carver-Hawkeye Arena against the Iowa Hawkeyes.
“It shows that they’re really connected and they have each other’s backs,” May said after
the game of what winning on the road all season long shows. “Because you don’t go into the environments that we went into this year and win if you don’t have great poise, you don’t have great togetherness, and you’re able to have great emotional regulation. You’re frustrated because of this, the crowd’s going against you, and to be able to get yourself back to neutral and centered is a skill that our guys have improved on greatly, and they continue to. And when they don’t, I think they do a great job of — the five guys on the floor of getting whoever’s not, whoever’s starting to splinter or become too emotional, they get them back reeled in and we just keep playing. We just get to the next thing.”
The Wolverines were up by as many as 10 points in the second half before Iowa was able to make a comeback and tie it up at 66-66 with less than a minute remaining. But an Elliot Cadeau lob to Aday Mara helped Michigan quickly retake the lead, 68-66. Roddy Gayle Jr. then came up with a couple clutch defensive plays — a block at the rim and then a forced turnover on the following possession — to help Michigan pull away for good.
“It just shows how together we are as a group,” senior forward Yaxel Lendeborg said. “We all play for each other, which is great. There were times when some calls or some plays weren’t going our way. We could have easily fell into the other stuff, the outside noise, but we stuck together, we kept our composure, and we made winning plays when we needed to.
“It means a lot,” Lendeborg continued. “We feel like we’re the best Michigan team ever assembled. We’ve got one stamp in history now. Hopefully we can get another one and continue to reach that main goal that we have, and that’s winning a national championship. Super excited that we got to accomplish this and we’re all grateful for it, but we’ve got more in store.”
Speaking of the National Championship, just in case you’re curious — that 75-76 Indiana team won it all in head coach Bob Knight’s fifth season at the helm. The opponent the Hoosiers played in that National Championship Game: the Michigan Wolverines.
There’s a long way to go before that, but the Wolverines have positioned themselves well to be one of the top seeds in the NCAA Tournament and have a legitimate shot at playing on the first Monday of April. But before then, Michigan has to take care of business at Crisler Center on Sunday afternoon (4:30 p.m., CBS) in its regular season finale against Michigan State.
