It’s almost fitting that, for a Michigan basketball team that relies so much on unselfishness, this season will be remembered for not sharing with anyone else.
The Wolverines are the 2025-26 Big Ten champions, all by themselves.
No. 3 U-M clinched an outright Big Ten regular-season title – their first since the 2020-21 season and the program’s 10th overall – with an 84-70 victory over No. 11 Illinois on Friday, Feb. 27.
Morez Johnson Jr., a physical sophomore who transferred from Illinois to Michigan on April 1, and his teammates appeared to be fueled by the boos each time Johnson touched the ball. Aday Mara scored 19 points on 8-for-9 field goal shooting and Yaxel Lendeborg added 16 points, seven rebounds and four assists.
2026 Big Ten Tournament picture
With the victory, the Wolverines also locked up the No. 1 seed in next month’s Big Ten Tournament at United Center in Chicago. That brings a triple-bye, meaning U-M won’t start its Big Ten tourney title defense until Friday, March 13 (noon, Big Ten Network), and will need just three wins in three days to earn the conference’s NCAA Tournament auto-bid for the second straight season.
Next up for Michigan basketball
But before then, U-M still has two more regular-season games to help its case for the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tourney. First up will be Iowa in U-M’s final road game, on Thursday (8 p.m., Peacock/NBC Sports) – the Hawkeyes sit eighth in the Big Ten standings at 10-7 in league play under first-year coach Ben McCollum. The Wolverines then finish the regular-season slate at home on March 8 (4:30 p.m. CBS), against rival Michigan State, which sits tied with Nebraska for second in the conference.
Signs of the times
Ten students directly behind the Illinois bench painted “MIRK > MOREZ” on their chests to assert their preference for Illinois freshman David Mirkovic, who posted 12 points and 10 rebounds in the power forward spot that Johnson likely would have held had he not transferred.
In the early going, Illinois’ students had plenty to cheer about. When likely Big Ten freshman of the year Keaton Wagler swished a stepback 3-pointer over the 7-foot-3 Mara while getting fouled, then drained the accompanying free throw, Illinois held a 16-11 lead with 13:03 to go.
Michigan responded with 11 straight points to take the lead for good, capped by a rare Johnson 3-pointer at the 9:45 mark as Illinois sagged off and dared him to shoot. The Wolverines kept transforming turnovers and long Illinois misses into fastbreak points to take a 38-31 halftime lead.
The Wolverines led by just seven points at halftime, but ignited in the second half, making nearly 60% of their shots and outrebounding the Illini by a sizable margin to built their lead to 20 points with just under five minutes left to play. In the end, Michigan snapped a nine-game losing streak against Illinois, with its first win against the Illini since Jan. 10, 2019.
Wagler led the Illini with 23 points, but needed 17 shots to get there; no Wolverine took more than 11 shots from the field.
Mo’ points for Morez Johnson Jr. in first half
With the Wolverines declaring Friday’s game as a “get-back” game for Johnson, their teammate who transferred to Michigan after one season at Illinois, well, Johnson did most of the getting back himself in the first half. The sophomore put up 13 points on 4-for-8 shooting and added five rebounds. Fellow sophomore L.J. Cason chipped in seven points and Yaxel Lendeborg had five points to go with seven rebounds and three assists, both team highs.
U-M struggled from beyond the arc in the first half, with just three makes in 12 tries, but the Wolverines remained their usual efficient selves inside the arc, hitting 10 of 17 (58.8%) 2-point shots. U-M also made up for an even game in the paint by pushing the pace and outscoring Illinois on the fastbreak, 10-0.
History lesson
The Wolverines’ nine previous outright Big Ten regular-season titles, and how they fared in the NCAA tournament:
2021: Elite Eight.
2014: Elite Eight.
1986: Second round.
1985: Second round.
1977: Elite Eight.
1966: Elite Eight.
1965: National runner-up.
1948: Sweet 16.
1927: None.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan basketball powers through Illinois for outright Big Ten title
Reporting by Staff and wire reports, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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