Michigan basketball, UC San Diego ready for 2025 NCAA Tournament showdown

DENVER – The Michigan Wolverines are gearing up for their 2025 NCAA Tournament matchup against the UC San Diego Tritons.

Players from both teams spoke to the media on Wednesday, March 19, ahead of their Thursday night game in Denver.

UC San Diego players Hayden Gray, Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones, and Tyler McGhie shared their thoughts on the upcoming challenge.

McGhie acknowledged the formidable opponent, saying, “They are a big team, and we know they just won the Big Ten Tournament championship, so they’re playing really hot, and they have a great coach, and they are a really good team. We are going to prep the same way and just be ourselves.”

Despite not being the biggest team, Gray sees an advantage in being underestimated.

“Yeah, I think that can play to some of our advantages. We want to get out and run. We’re still going to be a physical team, and I think we kind of like being overlooked. We’ve been overlooked a lot of the season, and it kind of helps us play with a chip on our shoulder,” said Gray.

Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones, with a background in rugby, believes his physicality will be beneficial against Michigan’s style.

“I think it will help a lot as I’m a physical player. Like Tyler was saying, we’re not going to change too much. We are going to keep doing what we’ve been doing and just play our game,” said Tait-Jones.

The Tritons have embraced their role as potential underdogs, focusing on maintaining their momentum and executing their game plan.

Head coach Eric Olen praised Michigan’s head coach Dusty May, acknowledging his accomplishments and expressing hope that his team can overcome the coaching challenge.

“Dusty is a fantastic basketball coach. Obviously, he’s accomplished a ton. I mean, he’s taken a team to a Final Four in this tournament. So, yeah, hopefully, my team can overcome the coaching disadvantage that we have.”

UC San Diego Tritons head coach Eric Olen

May returned the favor before the matchup was announced, saying he would study Olen’s team this offseason, which is why he believes he is a great coach.

“We play a way that’s maybe a little bit different than a lot of the other teams in college basketball.

I mean, we don’t have the traditional front court. We play with a little more five out spacing. So there’s a little bit of uniqueness to to us. And obviously we’ve had a little bit of success playing that way.

So maybe, maybe it’s worth taking a look at to see if there’s, I mean, everybody does that, right? Like, the same thing that, and that’s why, that’s why he’s such a good coach, is that I think he, he’s probably, you know, continuing to learn and grow and look at different things.

I think we do the same thing. We’re always looking at other teams and programs from, you know, all different levels of college basketball, professional basketball.

Are there things that other teams are doing that make sense for us, something that can help us, just a concept we can incorporate that can improve our team.

Maybe next year we’ll have a player on our team that’s different than our current group. And so, you know, that’s a scenario where maybe we’re going to go out and look at, you know, other teams that have that type of player, and how do they use them?

How do they put that person in positions to be successful? How do we incorporate that into what we’re doing? So I think, I think everybody’s always trying to, you know, learn and evolve in this and try to keep getting better.”

UC San Diego Tritons head coach Eric Olen

With a 15-game winning streak after dropping a game against UC Riverside Highlanders on Jan. 18, the team is determined to continue their success in the tournament.

On the other hand, Michigan players Danny Wolf, Tre Donaldson, and Vladislav Goldin discussed their mindsets for the tournament.

Having experienced being a lower seed with Yale, Wolf emphasized the importance of focusing on their capabilities and blocking out external noise.

“We know what we’re capable of. We’ll know how good we are. I mean, these last two weeks, we’ve tried to block out all the outside noise, and we’re gonna do the same tomorrow,” said Wolf.

Donaldson, Wolf, and Goldin discussed their experience in the tournament and their approach this year.

Vladislav Goldin: “We all try to emphasize how it’s the biggest event in basketball, so we just take it one game at a time and don’t try to overlook anything.Just control what we can control, and that’s our energy and effort, and if we can bring it every night, then we can give ourselves a chance.

Tre Donaldson: “We’re just not trying to focus on too much outside of our locker room. Just control what we can control, and that’s our energy and effort, and if we can bring it every night, then we can give ourselves a chance. That’s the biggest thing. Just focusing on us and Michigan basketball.”

Danny Wolf: “These guys hit it on the nail. We’ve all been in this position before. A lot of success in our locker room. The coaches, multiple Final Four appearances from the players and we all know what it takes to win games in this environment. If you just stay locked in on that and keen in on the little things, you’ll put yourself in a good place.”

Michigan, on the other hand, is aware of the challenges posed by UC San Diego’s defensive prowess and is focused on ball security and maintaining their offensive flow.

The Wolverines have been on a hot streak lately. Last year, they rattled off three consecutive wins, but in different fashions.

After dropping four of the season’s final six games, the Wolverines, who were on a three-game losing streak, entered the conference tournament with nothing to lose.

So, when they tipped off against the Purdue Boilermakers, it was surprising that the boat raced them 86-68 to advance to the semifinals.

--> Michigan basketball snaps 3-game skid, dominates Purdue to secure Big Ten Tournament semifinal spot

Then, thanks to a Donaldson miracle layup, the Wolverines took down the Maryland Terrapins 81-80 to advance to the championship game.

--> Tre Donaldson’s game-winning layup sends Michigan basketball to Big Ten Tournament championship

When the ball tipped off against the Wisconsin Badgers, Michigan looked like they had reverted to their old selves in the first half, as they tallied 21 points.

But some late-game heroics by some unsung heroes lifted them to the Big Ten Tournament championship over the Badgers for the first time since going back-to-back in 2017-2018.

--> Late-game heroics lift Michigan basketball to Big Ten Tournament championship over Badgers

With everyone seemingly doubting them ahead of the Tritons matchup, it’s all but surely giving them added fire needed to propel themselves to new heights.

“Every team is different, and we’ve been so focused on our preparation and getting our guys prepared for our opponent that we haven’t talked about all the extra stuff yet, and it’s came at us quickly too.

We played and got. Back late Sunday night. The one thing we’ve done differently is Danny started it.

We, by talking about the perspective of the underdog or the team, has nothing to lose.

And so, as a group, we talked about how we’re going to still be aggressive.

We’re still going to play the way we play, but at no point during that 40 minutes are we going to play with any fear of failure if they go on a run, and obviously the crowds, typically, they go for the lower seed, smaller teams.

That’s not going to affect the way we play or the way we move forward. We’re just going to keep plugging away, keep fighting, and there’s going to be absolutely no fear and failure with our group here, hopefully, the next couple games.”

Michigan Wolverines head coach Dusty May

The Wolverines, aware of UC San Diego’s defensive strengths, are focused on ball security and maintaining their offensive flow.

With a recent Big Ten Tournament victory, Michigan is riding a wave of momentum and looking to continue its success in the tournament.