Saturday's semifinals were worth the price of admission for Michigan fans in attendance. First they got a pleasant surprise with Michigan State being eliminated, then they got treated to a frantic finish with Michigan basketball essentially winning at the buzzer. A week ago Michigan was on life support, and now they are 40 minutes away from a championship that was practically improbable for them to reach.
Here's three of the takeaways from the winning shot that could propel Michigan to a Big Ten tournament championship on selection Sunday.
1. Tre Donaldson goes coast-to-coast
Derik Queen got fouled by Rubin Jones with five seconds left and down by one. Queen calmly sank both free throws to give Maryland a one point edge as time stood still. Then Tre Donaldson inbounded the ball to Vlad Goldin, who handed it off right back to Donaldson. The junior sped to the finish line and layed it up with his left hand for the game winner with 0.4 remaining on the clock.
Watching this again, it was the decoy by Burnett that set it up. Gillespie bit on it, got himself behind the play and opened up the middle of the court.
— Jeff Ermann (@Jeff_Ermann) March 15, 2025
Michigan's motion had them off-balance a lot. Dusty May didn't take FAU to the Final 4 by accident.pic.twitter.com/SyaQgHbJDC
Before the foul shots, Michigan basketball head coach Dusty May had a moment to dial up a play, and it worked to perfection, with Donaldson going the length of the court. Rule number one in basketball is to stop the ball, and Maryland failed at the most inopportune time. Instead of risking a block, Donaldson did the unconventional thing these days and went up with his left hand to make history in an instant classic win for the Wolverines.