‘He a dawg, man’: Tre Donaldson’s late takeover, strong defense helps Michigan beat Penn State

With leading scorer Vlad Goldin not playing for most of the game, somebody had to step up offensively. Enter: Tre Donaldson, who teammate Rubin Jones called a “dawg” after hitting the go-ahead shot to beat Penn State:

Michigan Wolverines point guard Tre Donaldson stepped up when his team needed him most. The Auburn transfer scored or assisted on all 11 of Michigan’s final 11 points, including a step-back three to take the lead that caused the Crisler Center to erupt.

Michigan won a clunky, 76-72, game over Penn State on Monday night, without much from one of its best players. Head coach Dusty May said that center Vlad Goldin, who has been dealing with an illness “shouldn’t have played.” With the team’s leading scorer playing limited minutes, Donaldson picked up the slack.

Donaldson has had a good habit of playing his best basketball in the second half of games, scoring 16 of his season-high 21 points in the final 20 minutes against the Nittany Lions.

“He a dawg, man,” Rubin Jones said of Donaldson. “He stays confident in all situations and it shows. He puts the work in and it shows.”

The win moved Michigan to 15-5 on the year and 7-2 in Big Ten play. After an ugly loss at Purdue last Friday, Donaldson said it felt good to help his team bounce back.

“It meant so much to me because it was something needed for our team,” Donaldson said. “Going to Purdue and getting a loss like that, it was something we needed, and I was just happy that God gave me the opportunity to do it for these guys. That was exciting.”

Donaldson’s late-game heroics were certainly impressive, but his late scoring burst wasn’t the only reason the Wolverines won it. They stepped up defensively, holding Penn State without a field goal in the final 3:12, with Donaldson making sure a key defensive play did not go unnoticed (0:19 mark in clip below).

“We went out there, got a stop, Danny (Wolf) with a big block that’s going to go overlooked,” Donaldson said. “Danny getting that block is big-time.”

Penn State turned over the ball 18 times, twice as much as the Wolverines did. Creating turnovers hasn’t been a strength for Michigan — the Wolverines are 287th out of 363 teams on KenPom in steal percentage , 13th in the Big Ten in steals per game, and 14th in total steals. But the six steals Michigan swiped were very crucial, with May saying that forcing turnovers has been a huge focus in practice after the Wolverines looked in the mirror.

“Part of the defensive focus was we weren’t being disruptive enough, teams were just doing what they wanted to do,” May said. “That’s what happened to us, the scout got out that if you let these guys move the ball and be comfortable, they can pick you apart. Our guys in practice, they were more disruptive, they were more physical.”

Both May and Jones — who posted six points and played solid defense all throughout — were especially complimentary of Michigan’s defense down the stretch. On-ball defense was the key to stopping Penn State.

“(Nick) Kern was able to get downhill on us tonight at will, he’s a tough cover,” May said. “We had Vlad matched up on him late and I thought Vlad did a nice job of maintaining good spacing and distance, and they had to get to the next thing. Prior to that they were getting downhill and we were overreacting to penetration and they were getting fan-out threes. We stopped the ball early, and therefore, there wasn’t that reaction to the penetration.”

“It was huge, because this week we focused on being more aggressive on defense and actually guarding the ball, moving our feet, talking more,” Jones said. “I think it showed in the game and that’s what practice leads to.”

All year long, May has stressed the importance of taking the Big Ten schedule one game at a time. Getting a win after that 30-point Purdue loss is a nice confidence boost as Big Ten play continues.

The Wolverines will have a few practices to keep working on turnover creation before they travel to Piscataway to face a struggling Rutgers team that features two potential NBA lottery picks in Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper.

“Just proud of our guys for staying the course,” May said. “These games come at you quick and we got to stay getting better and improving and not getting too high or too low.”

“Coming off that loss, it gave us a little more confidence,” Jones said. “We got a good one Saturday, so we got to prepare for that one now.”