Dusty May reveals his feelings on Michigan celebrating regular season Big Ten Championship

No. 3 Michigan formally clinched at least a share of the 2025 Big Ten regular-season championship following Tuesday night’s 77-67 win over Minnesota. The victory saw the Wolverines improve to 26-2 overall and 16-1 in Big Ten play, with the lone loss coming in the second week of conference play.

Following the game, Michigan head coach Dusty May opened up about what winning the program’s first regular-season Big Ten title since 2021 means, and whether he planned to allow his team to celebrate the moment. The Wolverines, which hold a three-game lead over second-place Illinois with three games remaining, can claim the outright Big Ten championship with its next victory, be it Friday night over the 10th-ranked Fighting Illini or next week at Iowa or at home March 8 vs. No. 15 Michigan State.

“I’m fine with them celebrating, hopefully it’s not after hours and they’re getting rest – we have a quick turnaround (with Friday’s game),” May said postgame, via The Wolverine. “But it’s hard for us as a staff, we’re so process-oriented. We want to feel good about the way we competed, the way we performed, the way we executed the processes leading up to the game, and we (weren’t) at our best tonight.

“So it’s a learning lesson. Also, we have such big and lofty goals in front of us, so it’s tough to really celebrate this moment,” May continued. “And like I said earlier, all glory is fleeting. As soon as we start to feel good about what we’ve done, we’re going to get knocked down. … So we’re trying to stay locked in on improving while also feeling good about doing something that’s really, really difficult.”

With the victory, Michigan matched the previous school record for Big Ten wins at 16, tying the mark set by the 1984-85 and 1976-77 teams. Despite last Saturday’s 68-63 loss to new No. 1 Duke, which ended the Wolverines’ brief one-week stay atop the AP Top 25 standings, Michigan remains among the leading favorites to win this season’s NCAA Tournament, which is another reason May wasn’t exactly keen on celebrating Tuesday night’s Big Ten win.

“Proud of our guys that we’ve been able to weather the storms to go through this marathon that we’re on to get to this point,” May added, “but if you get to the last five miles of a marathon and collapse, and you don’t stay hydrated, then it’s all for naught. So we’ve got to keep pushing forward and keep growing and getting better.”