Posted on May 22, 2007

They already earned the rings. Now, they'll be working for the trophy.

Michigan (21-7 Big Ten, 39-14 overall) will host this week's Big Ten Tournament as the regular-season champion and No. 1 seed in an attempt to repeat as Big Ten Tournament champions. The Wolverines clinched the conference regular-season title during their second-to-last regular-season game at Iowa.

No. 2 seed Minnesota (18-9 Big Ten, 38-14 overall) is the only tournament team Michigan didn't face in the regular season because its four-game series with the was cancelled due to freezing temperatures.

"I picked (the Wolverines) to win the league, and I'm not surprised they did," Minnesota coach John Anderson said. "Our problem is we lost five games in the league (to weather cancellations) and so trying to climb and stay at the top of the league is difficult when you have five less games played. . I think we're fortunate to end up even in the second spot based on the number of games we played this year."

Third-seeded Penn State dealt Michigan its only Big Ten series defeat of the season on May 13, when the Wolverines only managed one win and were outscored 29-12 in their three losses. With some of the strongest pitching in the Big Ten, the Nittany Lions will be looking to continue their three-game winning streak at The Fish this weekend.

Including the losses against Penn State, Michigan dropped four of its last seven games to end the season and finished with just a 6-6 record against the tournament's third, fourth and fifth seeds.

"We started 15-1 (in the Big Ten), and that's hard to do, so sooner or later you're going to have a phase where you're not going to win games," said Maloney about the final weeks of the season. "Even the teams that are supposed to be the best get whooped. . I didn't look at it as us playing so bad, I think they played extremely well, and each of these teams have enough talent, that if they get hot, anything can happen."

Maloney mentioned his team was seeded first in its conference tournament five times but never won the championship when he was at Ball State (1995-2002), proof that the top-seeded team isn't necessarily the favorite in a four-day tournament.

Iowa and Illinois, the tournament's No. 4 and No. 5 seeds, are hoping to prove Maloney's point - a lower seed on a hot streak could emerge as the tournament champion. Both teams' coaches cited inconsistency as their teams' main weakness. Iowa coach Jack Dahm said that injuries to starters, like closer Mike Schurz, might have the potential to create other, unlikely heroes in the Big Ten Tournament.

"We're going to have to have someone step up and find a way to close the door for us," said Dahm about Iowa's inevitable bullpen shuffle this weekend. "The fun thing about the postseason is . there's somebody who hasn't had a great year or hasn't done what they're supposed to, and all of a sudden, they come in and have an incredible tournament."

Maloney agreed, crediting sophomore Adam Abraham's surprisingly solid pitching as a key factor in last year's Big Ten Tournament win. Abraham, who wasn't regularly called to the mound during the regular season, helped the Wolverines win four straight to capture the 2006 tournament title.

"If Adam didn't do a heroic job, there was no way we were going to win the tournament," Maloney said. "The way I saw it was, even though he didn't pitch much and people could have second-guessed it later had he not done so well . you do what you think you can to help your team win at that moment."

Ohio State, the tournament's No. 6 seed, narrowly made the tournament with a 15-15 Big Ten record (33-22 overall). The Buckeyes were decimated by injuries this season and will look to keep their best lineup in tact for the tournament.

"There are a lot of issues, and I'm not sure we put it together correctly," Ohio State coach Bob Todd said. "We can't afford to get into the loser's bracket. We don't have the pitching to come back out of that. . This has probably been the poorest defensive team that I can remember having, and when you're short on pitching and you make your pitchers labor even more, it's even more difficult."

As the top seed, Michigan earned a bye Tuesday and will play its first game against the lowest-seed first-round winner Wednesday at 7:05. The championship game of the tournament is Saturday night at 7:05.

And the Wolverines plan to be there that night - as both the Big Ten regular-season and Tournament champions.