No risk, no story’: Tre Donaldson’s game-winner sends Michigan to Big Ten Tournament Championship
INDIANAPOLIS — Tie game. 5.3 seconds on the clock. No timeouts. One shot at bringing the ball up the floor to send your team to the Big Ten Tournament Championship game.
Michigan coach Dusty May had a decision to make: which of your two prolific scorers do you turn to? The dynamic 7-foot-1 forward with the skills of a guard in Danny Wolf or the 7-foot center Vlad Goldin with the eighth-best field goal percentage in the nation?
For May, the choice was simple — neither. You go to your most dynamic playmaker: junior guard Tre Donaldson.
After piloting the Wolverines throughout the season, Donaldson hasn’t been himself the past month. His assists have been slightly below average while his turnovers are slightly above, but something seemed off. Donaldson wasn’t converting the shots he normally makes, going 6-for-22 from three in that span.
That fire that makes him a great true point guard had dimmed slightly.
In the seven games before the tournament, Donaldson averaged just 6.8 points per game — considerably below his season average of 12 — while only scoring in double-digits twice. But something shifted in the Big Ten Tournament. Donaldson scored 13 points with five assists against Purdue on Friday and had 12 points and a career-high nine rebounds against Maryland on Saturday.
He is 5-for-13 from behind the arc, nearly equaling his 3-point total from the previous seven games in just two. He looked as connected to his teammates as he had all year while playing on the biggest stage thus far.
“I want that pressure,” Donaldson said. “I’m not running from it. A lot of guys will run from it, they don’t want to let the fans (down), they don’t want to let nobody down. But the good, the bad, the ugly, I want it all with me. My teammates trust me in that situation, that’s the biggest thing.”
