Michigan took another step toward securing a No. 1 seed in the 2026 NCAA Tournament late Friday by defeating Illinois 84-70 to earn the program’s first outright Big Ten regular-season championship since 2014.
The Wolverines were great.
They shot 53% from the field, took their first double-digit lead of the game on an Aday Mara dunk with 16:11 left, then extended that advantage to 21 points before going to the buzzer to win by 14. Even if Michigan loses every game it plays between now and Selection Sunday, it’s unlikely that four other teams will emerge with a better job. So yes, in Year 2 in Ann Arbor, Dusty May will give the school just its fourth No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament since the bracket expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
“I want to give our guys a lot of credit,” May said after the win at Illinois, which lifted Michigan’s record to 27-2 and gave the Wolverines a co-national-best 12 Quadrant-1 wins. “We found ourselves in an extremely hostile environment against a very talented, well-coached basketball team. We’ve gotten better by scouting them, by preparing for them, by watching them this year. That’s a good group – and I wouldn’t be surprised if, if we keep playing well, we run into them one or two more times.”
Michigan is ranked No. 2 in Saturday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 and 1 daily basketball rankings, where Duke, one of only two teams to beat the Wolverines this season, remains No. 1. Illinois is ranked No. 10. Next up for Michigan is Thursday’s game at Iowa, followed by Sunday’s regular-season finale against Michigan State.
Tip-off for Michigan State-Michigan is at 5:30 PM ET.
You can watch it on CBS.
Top 25 and 1 rankings
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