Dusty May Discusses Michigan 'Not Wanting to Share' Big Ten Regular Season Title

With four games to play and a 2.5 game lead over Illinois, barring a late-season collapse, Michigan should at worst share the Big Ten regular-season title. But a win over both Minnesota and Illinois this week would give the Wolverines the full share.

Coach May was asked about his thoughts of beating Minnesota on Tuesday to earn at least a share of the Big Ten title, and he said all their thoughts are on just beating the Gophers.

ichigan Wolverines head coach Dusty May reacts to a call during the first half against the Purdue Boilermakers . — Marc Lebryk-Imagn Images

"It’s not done. We’re so consumed now, and playing well against Minnesota," May said on Monday. "They’re going to play desperate, they’re shorthanded, they have five or six guys that are playing significant minutes and those five guys can all play.

"We’re not really thinking that big of a picture now as opposed to just taking care of business, and we know if we get this win, we at least, at worst case scenario, clinch a share. But I don’t think anyone in our locker room wants to share anything. And so we’ve just got to continue playing one possession at a time and get back to playing good ball."

How much thought to put into winning the Big Ten

The Wolverines are coming off a tough loss to Duke in a late-season non-conference showdown, but now Michigan can get back to focusing on Big Ten play. With four games left in the season, both the coaching staff and players know what's at stake.

But how much does May want his team focusing on that?

"I don’t know how I’m going to feel tomorrow. You know, we even talked about all the different scenarios," May said of the Big Ten title. "I don’t even like talking about this stuff because you have ball to play and you have to. It’s nature of the beast. But if we do win tomorrow, we clinch a share and then after that, you know, I think I’ll just be thinking next thing. We have a big game Friday. Is it Friday? Who do we play? Illinois. Okay.

"Second biggest game of the year coming up. The Illinois game Friday night, the biggest game of the year is obviously Minnesota. Second biggest game is Illinois and then who’s after that? Iowa. Iowa. Third biggest game of the year is Iowa. So I don’t think I will.

"Now I will say this, that out of the year we broke through at FAU, when we clinched at home, we clinched a share at home and we still had two more games on the road to go play and the university wanted to do the thing on the court with the nets and all the stuff and I was against it. But I did feel like our players deserved it, our fans, and that was probably the coolest moment because you have the court marked off with the ropes and inside the court you have your players, their families, the coaches, their families, and so you just have this area of everyone who poured into this experience and so ideally we celebrate later on after more work has been done.

"But we’re just happy to be in position to be playing meaningful games in February and this game tomorrow is incredibly meaningful."