The Wolverine Basketball Show: Reacting to Michigan's OT win over Wake Forest

On this episode of The Wolverine Basketball Show, Clayton Sayfie reacts to Michigan’s 85-84 overtime win over Wake Forest Tuesday night in Detroit. He discusses the atmosphere at Little Caesars Arena, what stood out from the game, key plays and players, and more.

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Sayfie broke down what he saw from his baseline seat at Little Caesars Arena.

“Back in Ann Arbor after a quick trip to Detroit for Michigan’s game against Wake Forest in the Wolverine-Deacon challenge or whatever they called it, the third ever meeting between Michigan and Wake Forest. Michigan finally gets a win over Wake Forest, the first ever all time — 85-84 in overtime. Wolverines came in as 14.5-point favorites at tip-off on BetMGM, ends up being much, much tighter.

“Wolverines pull it out. They were up 47-34 at halftime, and you didn’t feel like they played that well, but you’re sitting there and thinking, alright, I mean, 13-point lead at half, they were favored by 14.5. This is an ACC team, albeit one that was picked to finish 11th out of 18 teams in that conference. But still, a team that Dusty May believes is top five in that league and a team that he believes will be on the bubble throughout the season, and that’s why they were going to play desperate, and we saw that. They brought the energy from the get go and really, I thought, had a pretty good plan to attack Michigan’s switching defense, spread them out. We saw Omaha Biliew, who hadn’t made a three all year — and it was two games, so it’s not like it’s a huge sample size, but he’s only made a few in his career — and you’re thinking, OK, they’re going to use this smaller lineup to their advantage, to a certain extent.

“But Michigan was able to pull away, they’re up 13 at half. They’re up 13 several minutes into the second half, and then it becomes a dogfight. Wake Forest goes on a big run, it’s back and forth throughout the game and then it ends up being 77-70, Wake Forest, with under five minutes to play. All throughout the runs and the back and forth and when it got really close there and Wake Forest finally got a lead, I’m thinking, alright, you feel pretty good about Michigan’s chances to turn it on and win this game, and then that keeps going on. It’s 77-70 with under five to go, and at that point, I’m thinking, alright, Michigan probably loses this game. They’re going to have to lock in, and we’re going to learn a lot about what this team can do and the mental fortitude they have and the dawg … like, do they have that dawg in them late in the game to pull out a hard-fought victory, even when they were expected to win pretty big? It turns out they did.”