By Basketball Writer Drew Montag:
The (#13) University of Michigan men’s basketball team played their final two games of the regular season on the road last week, and they won both of them. On Thursday (03/01/2012) they beat Illinois 72-61, then on Sunday (03/04/2012) they beat Penn State 71-65. The wins raise Michigan’s final regular season record to 23-8 (13-5 in the Big Ten). More importantly, the wins, combined with two Michigan State losses this week, allowed UM to tie for the Big Ten title with Michigan State and Ohio State! This is a really big deal, and completely unexpected. At the beginning of the season, most experts expected Michigan to finish near the top of the Big Ten, but few expected Michigan to win it. As recently as last week, when UM lost their last home game of the season to Purdue, it looked highly improbable, though mathematically possible. No way would MSU lose both games, even though they were against contenders. Well, they did, and Michigan won a share of the title, their first since 1986.
