Michigan’s dreams of a Big Ten regular season title died late Wednesday night when Wisconsin guard Devin Harris nailed a free throw with four-tenths of a second left to give the Badgers a 60-59 win over Illinois.
But despite the fact that tomorrow’s game between Michigan (10-5 Big Ten, 17-11 overall) and Purdue (9-6, 17-9) will have no impact on the conference title chase, it will be an emotional afternoon in Crisler Arena.
That’s because the Michigan fans will get their last chance to see seniors compete at home.
The headliner of tomorrow’s good-bye will be Ann Arbor’s LaVell Blanchard, who has posted one of the most successful individual careers in Michigan history.
Often flying under the national and even local radar, Blanchard is one of just four Wolverines to record both 1,700 career points and 800 career rebounds.
He is two points behind Jalen Rose at eighth place on Michigan’s all-time scoring list, and is in position to finish his career as the first-ever Wolverine to lead the team in scoring and rebounding for four years.
A win by the Wolverines tomorrow would reverse last year’s conference and overall records (5-11, 11-18) and clinch no worse than a second-place tie, their highest finish since a second-place spot in 1993-94.
Get them while they’re hot: There are less than 1,000 tickets left for tomorrow afternoon’s game against Purdue. They’re available for students at the ticket office today and at the Crisler Arena gate tomorrow for $5.