At some point during Michigan’s giddy postgame celebration, Juwan Howard saved himself a little keepsake from this marvelous season.
“I put some of that confetti in my pocket,” Howard said. “I’m just going to keep it in a nice safe place, because it’s hard winning championships, man. I’m going to always remember this moment.”
Franz Wagner scored 19 points, Hunter Dickinson added 14 and No. 2 Michigan clinched the Big Ten title with a 69-50 victory over rival Michigan State on Thursday. It was an emotional night for the Wolverines, even though there weren’t many fans at Crisler Center because of the pandemic. When the game ended, confetti fell from above and players danced on the court before cutting down the net at one end.
Howard reached the Final Four as a player twice with the Fab Five, but even those teams never won the Big Ten title. When Michigan shared the conference crown in 2012 under John Beilein, it was the program’s first regular-season championship since 1986. The Wolverines won it again in 2014.
Now Howard has a championship in just his second season as coach, having outlasted a loaded league that has four teams ranked in the top seven nationally.
“We were fortunate enough to win the Big Ten championship during the regular season. It’s hard doing that. It’s so hard,” Howard said. “And I remember as a player, it was very hard for us, and so to do it this year, it’s a beautiful moment.”
The Wolverines (19-2, 14-2) had a chance to clinch the championship based on winning percentage with a victory in any of their final three games. They were blown out by No. 4 Illinois on Tuesday night but rebounded with a gritty effort two nights later.
Michigan went on a 9-2 run to take a 39-28 lead into halftime. The Wolverines later went on a 25-4 tear that spanned much of the second half.
Aaron Henry scored 14 points for Michigan State (14-11, 8-11), which will finish with a losing conference record for the first time since 1993. It had never happened before under coach Tom Izzo, and the Spartans are struggling to extend Izzo’s streak of 22 straight NCAA Tournament appearances.
“We’ll bounce back,” Izzo said. “We’ve been here — a lot this year.”
Michigan State did have two recent wins over top-five opponents, beating Illinois and Ohio State. The Spartans will get another crack at Michigan on Sunday. This home-and-home series to finish the regular season came about because of the Michigan athletic department’s coronavirus-related pause that started in January.
“We’ve got some work to do, and I’m looking forward to Sunday,” Izzo said.
Wagner and Mike Smith both had 3-pointers early in Michigan’s second-half run. Dickinson also had a couple big dunks, and the 7-foot-1 center made another big play when he dove on the floor for a loose ball.
