INDIANAPOLIS — Near center court, referee Zelton Steed called a reaching foul on Michigan junior forward DeShawn Sims.

Sims, who had already scored 25 points, raised his right arm high and let out an emphatic, "No!"

Even with his team up 54-26 and less than 14 minutes away from sealing an NCAA Tournament bid, Sims couldn’t help but argue his first foul of the game.

“I was just going for the ball,” Sims protested to Steed.

Steed raised an eyebrow at Sims.

Steed looked a little perplexed, and so would anyone who doesn’t know Sims, who's called "Peedi" by friends and family.

But at the Wolverine bench 10 feet away, Michigan coach John Beilein and company knew everything would be all right.

“I just spazzed out for a second, but everybody knows what to do to get me back into the game,” Sims said. “And Coach calmed me down, and I forgot about it after that. He took me out of the game. He didn’t want me to get a (technical foul) because sometimes I’m a little crazy.”

As Sims joked, he might be a little crazy at times. Sometimes he has mental lapses and forgets the situation. But usually, Sims just says what’s on his mind. No reservations.

“He’s just so involved in the game, that you can’t really get mad at him,” said senior forward Jevohn Shepherd, who has played three years with Sims. “You’ve gotta just laugh and say, ‘Peedi, it’s all right.’ ”

Sims’s outgoing personality might ruffle a few feathers, but it is a huge reason why the Wolverines have played their best basketball in the last three weeks and are on their way to their first NCAA Tournament in 11 years after a 73-45 win over Iowa in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament on Thursday.

But it’s a different kind of outgoing.

Sims isn’t the type of player to demand attention and raise his arms above his head to amp up the crowd. After a monstrous dunk yesterday, he pointed at sophomore forward Manny Harris, who fed him the ball.

Harris leads Michigan in scoring, and Sims's willingness to defer credit has helped the Wolverines' chemistry. But Sims definitely produces in big moments.

When Michigan pounded then-No. 16 Purdue at home Feb. 26, Sims made a big shot late in the game and put both hands on his back. The announcers reasoned Sims was saying that he put the whole team on his back.

That was hardly the case. Sims later admitted his back was just in pain.

He won’t scream at other players on the floor or give rousing motivational speeches before a big game.

But he does other things.

“He’s always got that smile on his face, so you can always look at him and know that it’s going to be OK,” fifth-year senior guard David Merritt said.

Scoring your team’s first 14 points on 7-of-7 shooting in the first game of a single-elimination tournament doesn’t hurt either, but the Wolverines rely on Sims to do more than just score.

He lightens the mood with his jokes and personality. On Beilein’s weekly radio show, nine of Sims’s teammates named him the team's funniest player.

And he keeps his teammates levelheaded. When Michigan went through rough stretches this season, Sims raised the Wolverines’ spirits.

“You’re not really down whenever you hear him talk,” Merritt said. “It’s just always a good time. ... You could say this was a must-win game today, but we’re pretty loose. Everybody’s feeling good, no pressure really. He keeps us very loose.”

The Wolverines are 72 hours from Selection Sunday. That’s 72 hours away from officialy restoring promise to a program that hasn’t had much to cheer about in more than a decade.

And the Wolverines are loose and relaxed? Well, that’s a good thing, and Michigan can thank Sims for that.

— Lincoln can be reached at lincolnr@umich.edu.