How Michigan's Big Ten Tournament Loss Helped Reset the Final Four Mission

Nearly three weeks ago, Michigan basketball lost an opportunity to win the Big Ten Tournament after falling to the Purdue Boilermakers at the United Center in Chicago on March 15.

In the grand scheme of things, that wasn't the biggest deal as the Wolverines won the conference in the regular season by four games and still had a ton to be proud of with the NCAA Tournament to look forward to.

However, the standards have become incredibly high in Dusty May's program, and while not sweeping the regular season and conference titles may not have seemed like an issue to those outside of the Michigan locker room, inside the Wolverines' locker room, they knew they didn't play their best basketball that day, or for that entire weekend for that matter.

Immediately after that loss, the assistant coaches were encouraging the players in the United Center hallway that leads to the locker room that they were going to turn the defeat into a positive.

Now, the Wolverines are in the Final Four in Indianapolis and sit two wins away from the program's first national title since 1989.

On Friday, Michigan's Will Tschetter and Trey McKenney met with reporters and discussed how the Wolverines have taken lessons from all three of their losses to make them a better team in the present.

Will Tschetter practices — Michigan forward Will Tschetter (42) practices at open practice at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on Friday, April 3, 2026. | Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Tschetter and McKenney and how Michigan has learned from losses

Tschetter has been a veteran presence for the Wolverines and is viewed as a leader who has been through it all with this Michigan program as a player.

He said the team had a bit of a wake up call after the Big Ten Tournament title game defeat.

"After that Purdue loss in the Big Ten Tournament, I think we had a good look in the mirror," Tschetter said. "We realized we needed to get tougher, needed to go back to some of those characteristics that led us to win big games. I felt like we came out and our team acknowledged that great in the first round, second round (of the NCAA Tournament) and that kind of led into the Sweet 16 and Elite 8."

McKenney echoed some of Tschetter's thoughts, essentially saying that even though the Wolverines have only lost three games this season, all of them were painful as they made sure they didn't want to have those feelings again.

Trey McKenney practice — Michigan guard Trey McKenney (1) practices at open practice at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on Friday, April 3, 2026. | Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

"I think those losses—every one of those three losses we had really stung," said McKenney. "And we felt that and we just never really wanted to feel that again. So, I think that really helped us with our consistency through our games, and being able in the second half to look at our teammates and say 'we have to really lock in' and give our best defensively, because we know anything can really happen on this stage when the stakes are highest in March and April."

“After that Purdue loss in the Big Ten tournament, I think we had a good look in the mirror—we realized that we needed to get tougher.”

Will Tschetter and Trey McKenney talk the mindset behind @umichbball's dominant #MarchMadness run 👇 pic.twitter.com/sZxjAvb3eA
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) April 3, 2026