The Michigan Wolverines couldn’t come away victorious on Senior Day, falling to the Illinois Fighting Illini in a game with sizable Big Ten title implications. Here are the takeaways from the loss:
The No. 15 Michigan Wolverines couldn’t earn a win on Senior Day, falling to the Illinois Fighting Illini , 93-73.
Offense was hard to come by for the Wolverines, who looked gassed in the second half. A loss like this to a good Illinois team won’t hurt Michigan’s tournament resume much. But with two more games against AP top-25 teams on the horizon, there’s not much time for a break, now that the best month in college basketball is here.
One positive note from today’s action in the Big Ten — with Michigan State beating Wisconsin, Michigan has clinched a double-bye in the Big Ten Tournament , an important break for this team before tournament play.
Here are takeaways from the loss.
Vlad Goldin, early and often
Consistent scoring was hard to come by for the Wolverines in the first half especially, but one of Michigan’s seniors picked up the slack on Senior Day.
Vlad Goldin — Michigan’s leading scorer — stayed determined in the post. As he has all season, Goldin did a good job sealing off defenders and staying patient in the post before finishing with hook shots.
Goldin helped Michigan take the lead with six quick points to open the second half. He finished with 22 points and six rebounds in his penultimate game at Crisler Center.
This was Goldin’s ninth game this season scoring 20 points or more, but the rest of his teammates couldn’t score enough to keep Michigan in this one. Illinois kept up with Michigan in the opening half, and then shot 48 percent from three to catapult itself to an upset victory.
A bad game from Danny Wolf
There’s a lot to like about Danny Wolf — he can play make, he can score at the rim, he rebounds the ball well and he’s got the size and foot speed to compete on defense. With the guard-like plays he makes, he is one of social media’s favorite college basketball players.
One of the biggest drawbacks when it comes to Wolf’s draft stock is these type of games from him happen too often. While he had nine points, he also had five turnovers and couldn’t get into a much of a rhythm with increased ball pressure and physical play from the Illini. He never gets rattled confidence-wise, but shots just weren’t falling for him (3-of-6).
Michigan is too reliant on Wolf offensively for him not to meet his 12.6 points per game average. Wolf needs to be better for Michigan to have a shot at making a run in March.
Illinois stays sound on boards and on defense
Credit to Illinois, as it made life hell for Michigan early on while crashing the boards hard.
The Fighting Illini held the Wolverines to 45 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes thanks to good rotations and reliable rim protection. Illinois couldn’t take advantage of that decent defense, though, only shooting 32 percent in the opening half.
Illinois also managed to grab 10 offensive rebounds in the opening half before ultimately winning the battle on the boards (43-31). The Fighting Illini crashing the glass led to a lot of extra possessions, and playing its fourth game in 10 days, Michigan looked a little gassed.
In the zone
As we’ve seen more of in recent weeks, Michigan went to the two-three zone against Illinois, and it was fairly effective.
Illinois got a couple baskets against the zone once Michigan started playing it midway through the first half, but the zone did force the Illini into some mediocre three-point attempts, clearly one of the goals of running it. Michigan was in zone a good chunk of the first half and for possessions with all three bigs (Goldin, Wolf, Will Tschetter) on the floor.
With how much Michigan has run it the past few weeks, I’m guessing we’ll see Dusty May and his staff roll out the zone against a team that isn’t great from three like Illinois.
Senior Day festivities
Goldin and guards Rubin Jones, Jace Howard and Ian Burns were honored before the game as part of Michigan’s Senior Day ceremonies.
Video of Rubin Jones and Vlad Goldin getting honored on Senior Day, with Vlad’s family coming all the way from Russia.
(Forgot to get video of walk-on Ian Burns but he was honored too) pic.twitter.com/dfvYOuVOKN
— Maize n Brew (@MaizenBrew) March 2, 2025
Juwan Howard is back at Crisler Center to celebrate Jace Howard here on Senior Day pic.twitter.com/XjlDG7l7E3
— Maize n Brew (@MaizenBrew) March 2, 2025
Goldin’s honor was particularly cool, with his parents being by his side, getting to witness a college basketball game of his for the first time in person.
Vlad Goldin, a native of Russia, just saw his parents for the first time in five years
The Goldins are in town to attend @UMichbball senior day Sunday, their first college basketball game.
Watch the full @BTNJourney feature 3/12 on @BigTenNetwork . pic.twitter.com/M7rdnnvFpT
— Big Ten Men’s Basketball (@B1GMBBall) March 1, 2025
It was really cool to see May honor Goldin after all those years together at Florida Atlantic. I’m sure Goldin’s parents appreciated that and value the relationship their son has with May.
Up Next
Michigan closes the regular season with two big games against ranked Big Ten teams. Michigan’s final game in Ann Arbor this season is against No. 16 Maryland on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. on Big Ten Network.
The Wolverines conclude the regular season at No. 8 Michigan State, a game that could be for the Big Ten regular season title. That game tips off on Sunday, March 9 at noon on CBS.