With ‘rust’ removed, No. 3 Michigan out to avenge loss to No. 23 Wisconsin
Michigan point guard Elliot Cadeau was asked about rest vs. rust following his team's 71-67 victory over eighth-seeded Ohio State on Friday in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Conference tournament in Chicago.
"We felt like it took us a minute to get into our groove in the game," Cadeau said of the third-ranked Wolverines' first game since Sunday. "We felt like we shook all the rust off and we'll be 100% (playing) our best basketball (on Saturday) against a really talented team."
That really talented team is fifth-seeded and 23rd-ranked Wisconsin (24-9), which will try to defeat top-seeded Michigan (30-2) for the second time this season Saturday in the semifinals.
The winner will advance to Sunday's championship game to play either sixth-seeded UCLA or seventh-seeded Purdue. Both Michigan and Wisconsin have won five games in a row.
The Badgers defeated Illinois 91-88 in overtime on Friday, overcoming a 15-point deficit in their second extra-session win against the Fighting Illini in just over a month. It was their fourth win against a top-10 team in the 2026 calendar year.
The first one basically kick-started their emergence as a true contender. On Jan. 10, with Michigan boasting a 14-0 record, Wisconsin traveled to Ann Arbor and upset the Wolverines 91-88 by canning 15 of 33 3-pointers.
Cadeau said defeating the Badgers in the rematch will require a better effort than the Wolverines offered on Friday.
"We're going to have to kind of have a different mindset coming into the next game," he said. "If we play the way we did today, I don't think we'll win tomorrow."
Michigan certainly will hope for more out of conference Player of the Year Yaxel Lendeborg. He managed just four shots and six points on Friday, although he did chip in six assists and made the clinching free throws with six seconds left.
"Yax had an off night because they played him a little differently and had a game plan centered around stopping him," Wolverines coach Dusty May said. "Every game presents different challenges."
The two biggest ones for Michigan might be Wisconsin's Nick Boyd and John Blackwell. Boyd, who played for May as a freshman when Florida Atlantic reached the Final Four in 2023, scored a career-high 38 points against Illinois and Blackwell added 31.
Blackwell is averaging 32.5 points and 8.0 rebounds in the tournament, while Boyd is averaging 30.5 ppg and 7.5 assists. They've picked up the slack with forward Nolan Winter (ankle) out the last four games.
Wisconsin coach Greg Gard said the latest win was more than a two-man effort, though.
"These two guys were terrific," he said of Boyd and Blackwell, "but their teammates also do a really good job of helping along the way with putting space on the floor and the rebounding, and those types of things."
For his part, Boyd said he's learned how to play with Blackwell. He's also used his teammate's calm to improve his performance.
"It took us some time -- now I know where he's going to be at all times," Boyd said. "As we keep growing together and get more and more games together, God willing, it's just going to keep being special."