University of Michigan Athletics
Michigan
Rutgers
2/25/2025 8:04:00 PM | Men’s Basketball
By: Tom Wywrot
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The 15th-ranked University of Michigan men’s basketball team (21-6, 13-3 Big Ten) begins a three-game homestand at Crisler Center starting with Rutgers (14-14, 7-10 Big Ten) on Thursday (Feb. 27). In the second meeting of the season, U-M claimed a 66-63 win (Feb. 1) at Jersey Mike’s Arena. The game is scheduled for a 9 p.m. tipoff and will be streamed live on Peacock.
Notes
• Before the regular-season finale at Michigan State (March 9) in East Lansing, Michigan has its next three games at Crisler Center. U-M has not had back-to-back home games since the end of December — Purdue Fort Wayne (Dec. 22) and Western Kentucky (Dec. 29).
• Michigan is on the tail end of three games in seven days. U-M fell to MSU (75-62; Feb. 21) before picking up its seventh road win at Nebraska (49-46; Feb. 24).
• U-M opened February with a 66-63 win at Rutgers (Feb. 1) and now closes the month with a return game at Crisler Center (Feb. 27).
• Danny Wolf’s double-double (16 points, 14 rebounds) guided U-M to a 66-63 road win at Rutgers (Feb. 1) inside Jersey Mike’s Arena. Vladislav Goldin added 14 points and six rebounds, while Tre Donaldson had 10 points and six assists. Justin Pippen had a career-best four assists off the bench. The Scarlet Knights were without freshman Dylan Harper, who was out due to an ankle injury. U-M also held fellow Rutgers freshman Ace Bailey to 10 points, six rebounds, and a 0-for-7 line from long range.
• Dusty May’s 13 Big Ten wins give him the most conference victories for a first-year Michigan head coach. He broke a tie with Steve Fisher (12-6; 1989-80).
• Wolf averages a near double-double (12.7 ppg and 9.9 rpg) and is second in the Big Ten with 12 double-doubles (Maryland’s Julian Reese, 13). Wolf has grabbed 10-plus rebounds in 15 of his 20 games as a Wolverine. Wolf has a chance to become the first Wolverine to average a double-double since Robert Traylor (1997-98; 16.2 ppg, 10.1 rpg) and Chris Webber — 1992-93 (24.3 ppg, 12.7 rpg) and 1991-92 (19.4 ppg, 12.5 rpg).
• With two assists at Nebraska, Wolf (101; 3.7 apg) reached the century mark for the first time in his career. He has 10 games with five-plus assists, four with seven-plus, and a career-best nine vs. Arkansas (Dec. 10). Wolf trails Donaldson (106; 3.9 apg) for the team lead.
• Goldin is shooting 63.5 percent, which ranks second in the Big Ten (Indiana’s Oumar Ballo, 64.3 percent) and eighth nationally.
• After a midseason stretch of six straight games making 10-plus three-pointers, U-M has only one in its last nine. In the six-game stretch, Michigan made 76 three-pointers (46.3 percent) and has 70 in the next 11 games (28.6 percent).
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Rutgers falls to Michigan in heartbreaker, wasting elite offensive half
Rutgers guard Tyson Acuff (5) shoots past Michigan guard L.J. Cason, right, and center Vladislav Goldin during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025, in Ann Arbor, Mich. (AP Photo/Jose Juarez)AP
Rutgers’ late-season momentum stalled with a heartbreaker in Ann Arbor.
The Scarlet Knights saw their two-game win streak get snapped on Thursday, when they suffered an 84-82 loss to No. 15 Michigan in which they blew a double-digit lead, squandering some elite scoring in the first half and watching the Wolverines hit a game-winner at the buzzer.
After leading by 13 points in the first half, the Scarlet Knights held an 82-81 lead with 3 seconds remaining, but a three-pointer from Nimari Burnett at the buzzer marked the defeat.
The Scarlet Knights (14-15, 7-11) had four different players provide double-digit scoring: freshmen guard Dylan Harper (17 points on 7-of-13 shooting), freshman center Lathan Sommerville (17 points on 5-of-10 shooting, 7-of-7 on free throws), fifth-year senior and Detroit native Tyson Acuff (16 points on 5-of-11 shooting) and freshman forward Ace Bailey (13 points on 6-of-12 shooting).
But the Scarlet Knights struggled mightily to defend the paint (48 points).
Rutgers fell into an early 12-7 lead, giving up 10 quick points in the paint, but it would respond by returning to the scorching Scarlet Knights that buried USC on Sunday. They went on a 52-32 run in the following 13 minutes, hitting 19 of its 23 field goal attempts in that span. Six different players scored in that stretch, from Acuff hitting back-to-back threes to timely shots from Bailey, Harper, Davis and Williams.
Rutgers saw its game-high 13-point lead dwindle to 8 at the break, giving up a 5-0 spurt in the final minute of the first half.
The Scarlet Knights withstood an early 6-0 run from the Wolverines early in the second half and responded with a 7-0 run of their own, putting themselves up 12 points with 12 minutes to play.
But the hosts hit back with a 10-0 run over a six-minute stretch in which Rutgers missed 12 consecutive field goal attempts, cutting their deficit down to 2 points with six minutes to play. The Scarlet Knights struggled mightily to score in the second half, shooting 25% from the floor (9-of-36), including a 1-of-10 clip on threes.
The Wolverines completed the comeback by tying the game at 76 with 4:33 to play. The teams traded baskets from there, exchanging the lead five times in the final minute until Burnett’s buzzer beater.
Rutgers returns to action on Tuesday, when it faces No. 20 Purdue in West Lafayette.
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Michigan basketball hits a 3 when it counts in 84-82 win over Rutgers at home
Anything you can do, I can do, too.
Michigan basketball, one night after rival Michigan State took a half-game Big Ten lead on a buzzer-beating win over Maryland, won on a heartstopper of its own.
With 3.3 seconds left and the Wolverines trailing by one, head coach Dusty May drew up one final play — on the inbounds, Danny Wolf was trapped but swung the ball to Nimari Burnett. The veteran then canned a 25-footer as time expired to give U-M an improbable 84-82 win over Rutgers.
The Wolverines were down as much as 12 with 11:14 to play when they flipped a switch defensively. Michigan had allowed 74 points in the first 29 minutes of the game, then allowed just eight the rest of the way. In the meantime, the Wolverines chipped away on the other end and ultimately ended the month of February the same way they began: By beating Rutgers.
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Vlad Goldin finished with 22 points and 11 rebounds while the hero of the game, Burnett, scored a season-high 20 points, Will Tschetter added 16 and Wolf finished with 10 points and eight rebounds.
As a result, No. 13 Michigan (22-6, 14-3 Big Ten) pulled back into a tie atop the Big Ten with Michigan State with three games to play. U-M has home games against Illinois (3:45 p.m. Sunday, CBS) and Maryland (Wednesday) before its regular-season finale in East Lansing on March 9.
The game was tied at 76 when Rutgers freshman Dylan Harper hit a reverse to go up two. Then, after a timeout, Goldin threw down a slam to knot the game at 78. Wolf split a pair from the line to give the Wolverines a one-point led, but freshman Ace Bailey, who finished 13, drilled a baseline fadeaway to go up one with 44 seconds left.
U-M didn’t call timeout on the other end and Tre Donaldson hit a go-ahead layup with 31.1 seconds left. After Rutgers drew up a play, Tyson Acuff (a Detroit Cass Tech alumnus and Eastern Michigan transfer) was fouled on a 3; he hit two of the free throws to put the Scarlet Knights up, 82-81, with 12 seconds left.
Michigan had one last possession, but it was getting out of sorts, so May called a halt to the action and drew up the game-winner for Burnett.
Michigan was down eight at the half, but Burnett started hot out of the break, making a 3-pointer from the left wing and later a tough and-1 on the block as well as a fadeaway from the right elbow to get Michigan within five, 65-60.
From there, Rutgers went on a 9-2 run and, after a Harper layup, May called timeout down 12 with 11:14 left.
That’s when Michigan slowly started chipping away. Wolf made a layup, then L.J. Cason got an offensive rebound and putback before Goldin swatted the ball at the rim and Roddy Gayle Jr. got a run-out the other way to cap a 6-0 run in less than a minute to get U-M within six.
Simultaneously, Rutgers went cold, making just one of 10 shots. When Goldin hit a pair from the line with 7:49 left, U-M’s deficit was only 74-70. Michigan then forced a shot clock violation and after Wolf made a layup, Burnett added a pair of free throws and Tschetter a floater from the baseline to tie the game at 76 with 4:17 to play.
Michigan allowed 46 points at Nebraska on Monday night. It allowed 57 to Rutgers in just the first 20 minutes Thursday.
From the 14:26 mark of the half when Bailey made a layup, to the 1:50 point when Harper finished with a slam, the Scarlett Knights were seemingly unstoppable from the field. Steve Pikell’s team made an unfathomable 16 of 18 shots from the floor. (Nebraska made 16 of 62 all night on Monday.)
Even when the Scarlet Knights finally did miss, twice, they got offensive rebounds, ending in Acuff canning a 3 to go up, 57-44, with 1:11 left in the half.
U-M was only that close because Goldin led the way with 17 at the break, including the final five of the half to pull May’s team within eight at the break, while Tschetter had 12 including a pair of 3-pointers.
While Michigan shot well from the floor (17-for-30) in the first half, it again struggled beyond the arc (3-for-13) before the intermission.
Tony Garcia is the Michigan Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
