I hope you watched Michigan’s 88-86 overtime triumph at Ohio State last night. There’s no way the written word can do that unbelievable, frustrating, stupid, thrilling game justice.

Even this ludicrous, nausea-inducing win probability chart only partially captures it:

That does confirm what I believed in the immediate aftermath was not me being a prisoner of the moment: that was the weirdest, wildest basketball game I’ve watched in my life.

Let’s start at the end of regulation, when the game took a Cedar Point Top Thrill turn.

Olivia Olson, who scored a career-high 31 points in a magnificent performance, rebounded her own miss and tied the game on a pair of three throws with just under a minute left. Ohio State superstar Jaloni Caimbridge couldn’t connect on a potential go-ahead three-pointer on the following possession.

Michigan worked the clock and failed to generate a shot before the ball went out of bounds off Ohio State with 2.3 seconds on the shot clock and 13.7 on the game clock. Macy Brown inbounded to Syla Swords, who stepped beyond the three-point line, took one side-step dribble, and drilled a clutch three-pointer over a tight contest from OSU’s Bryn Martin.

After a timeout to advance the ball to midcourt, OSU's Chance Gray missed a scarily good look to tie the game on a three, only for Kennedy Caimbridge to draw a Brooke Quarles Daniels foul on a putback attempt that nearly went in. She missed both free throws, Te’Yala Delfosse secured the rebound, and U-M looked sure to win after Kennedy Caimbridge fouled her — and fouled out — with 2.2 seconds to play.

Instead, Quarles Daniels' attempt at a long inbounds pass was deflected by Buckeye center Elsa Lemmilä. In one unbelievable motion, Jaloni Caimbridge collected the loose ball, planted both feet behind the three-point arc, and drew a shooting foul on BQD. She calmly sank all three free throws to send the game to overtime.

The Wolverines looked deflated and played like it for most of the extra session. Ohio State went on a 12-4 run as Quarles Daniels became the third Michigan starter to foul out of the game, joining Mila Holloway and Ashley Sofilkanich on the bench.

With 1:40 remaining in overtime, the Wolverines trailed by eight points. Their lineup consisted of Swords, Brown, Olson, Delfosse, and Alyssa Crockett, a group I’m not even sure has practiced as a unit, let alone seen actual game time. According to ESPN, Ohio State had a 99.5% win probability. This was over.

Until, of all people, Macy Brown took over. A defensive specialist, Brown had played 20 minutes in regulation without scoring a point; heading into the game, she’d scored 53 points in 25 appearances and made nine of her 30 three-point attempts.

She tied the game on her own, sinking two free throws before making back-to-back triples. The shot to knot it up hit the rim twice, then the backboard, then the rim twice more before falling through.

Both Brown threes were assisted by Crockett, a little-used 6’2” reserve forward who came into the game with ten assists all season, eight of them before the calendar flipped over to 2026.

“We want the ball in her hands, which says a lot about Macy,” Swords said in the postgame press conference. “You can come off the bench and hit two clutch threes back to back in overtime, that says a lot about who she is as a person and how much we trust her.”

Martin missed a potential go-ahead three-pointer with Brown closing out hard, Swords grabbed the board off a deflection, and Michigan called timeout with 8.7 seconds to play, advancing the inbounds to halfcourt. Delfosse set a screen for Olson, creating a defender switch near midcourt. Crockett set another pick at the arc, causing another switch.

Olson did the rest, driving around Lemmilä — a 6’6" center caught in too much space — and lifting off her right foot for a right-handed finish that she made look much easier than a wrong-footed shot should appear.

With no timeouts left, OSU had to go right away. What ensued was appropriately ludicrous. After the clock operator waited a beat to start the timer, a double-team forced Jaloni Caimbridge to throw the ball ahead to Chance Gray, whose would-be winner from logo distance swished through the net. A longer-than-necessary review confirmed Gray didn't get the shot off in time.

Michigan wins.

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What about the first 39 minutes, you ask?

The referees marred what could’ve been a phenomenal game. Even the most minor contact drew a whistle. Six players, three on each side, picked up two fouls before halftime. That included both of Michigan’s primary ballhandlers, Holloway and BQD, who combined to play only nine first-half minutes. If you tuned in to watch BQD defend Jaloni Caimbridge, you were sorely disappointed.

Sofilkanich was the rare player who didn’t commit a first-half foul. She picked up her fifth before the end of regulation. The officials called 40 fouls in a 45-minute game. If that doesn't sound fun to watch, you are correct.

Gray's three-pointer to end the first quarter gave OSU what would end up being their largest lead of the game at 28-14. Between early foul trouble and some odd lineup choices, U-M couldn’t find their rhythm on either end of the court. Six first-quarter points from backup forward Kendall Dudley, who looked impressive off the dribble, kept matters from being even worse.

After a slow start, Olson took over, bullying the smaller Buckeye guards on the interior on her way to 15 second-quarter points. Swords connected on a couple threes, the second briefly giving U-M the lead before Jaloni Caimbridge responded with a long-ranger of her own to give the Buckeyes a 40-39 edge at the half.

A pair of threes from Holloway and a strong stint by Delfosse off the bench gave Michigan an eight-point lead after three quarters. They’d seemed to solve OSU’s fast break and full-court press.

With Holloway and Sofilkanich out for most of the fourth, however, the Buckeyes were able to flip the third-quarter script. Michigan went away from feeding Olson down low to their detriment, making four field goals and committing seven turnovers in the final regulation period. Sofilkanich’s absence allowed OSU to crash the offensive boards, grabbing seven, and they scored seven critical points off turnovers.

A Kennedy Caimbridge offensive rebound preceded Holloway’s fifth foul. Caimbridge split her pair of free throws to tie the game at 69. After a couple empty trips, Gray got out on the fast break for a layup. Then all hell ensued.

“We’ve been up, we’ve been down, we’ve been through the overtimes and double overtimes, all of that, and been able to come up with wins,” Swords said. “So it’s exciting to know that we’ve been tested and we’re prepared for anything that March is gonna throw at us.”

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Mathurin Watch: Confused. McKenzie Mathurin didn’t play at all despite the foul trouble in the backcourt. I didn’t hear Kim Barnes Arico address the reasoning in the postgame press conference video. Mathurin was on the bench and didn't appear injured. Maybe they’re shooting for a redshirt?

Double-bye secured. With the win, Michigan is guaranteed a top-three seed in the Big Ten tournament and the critical double-bye that comes with that placement. The only question now is whether the Wolverines will get the two- or three-seed.

To get the two, U-M needs to finish a game ahead of Iowa, which would almost certainly require beating Maryland combined with a Hawkeyes loss to Illinois tonight (9 pm ET, BTN). Iowa does have two games left but the second is at Wisconsin, which has lost eight straight games.

Neither Ohio State nor Minnesota can catch Michigan, so any other scenario results in the three-seed.

More coverage complaints. This game wasn't on Big Ten Plus but there sure were times where it felt equivalent in quality.

The Peacock broadcast featured announcers who frequently got basic facts wrong — Delfosse is not a starter and, despite the analyst’s repeated statements to the contrary, Olson didn't play all five positions in this game. They never mentioned the conference tournament ramifications. At one point they praised U-M's offensive rebounding a possession before saying OSU was doing a good job of holding the Wolverines to "one-and-done” possessions.

Meanwhile, the director kept cutting to zoomed-in camera shots of players while the ball was in play elsewhere. Ohio State plays notoriously fast and Michigan also pushes the tempo. They never figured out they needed to stop switching views before inbounds passes and missed some entire plays as a result.

In Big Ten Plus news, the archived “full game" video is missing some of the most important plays, including the entire stretch from 1:41 left in the fourth quarter to the aftermath of the Swords go-ahead three at the end of regulation. Yes, it doesn't have the Swords three in the replay, even though it's in their YouTube highlight package. I have no good explanation for this failure.

Invest more in women’s sports coverage. Please.

Shame. SHAME.

Bluesky, the true sports app, was popping all night. Join us.

Elsewhere. Land Grant Holy Land’s Thomas Costello, who was kind enough to have me do a pregame Q&A there, has a detailed rundown of the game with several more presser quotes and takeaways for both teams over at The IX Sports. Crockett appears to be serving as a coach on the floor:

Great call, Crockett.

Michigan ends the regular season on Saturday at 2:30 ET against Maryland on FOX. There will be Senior Day ceremonies for Crockett, Quarles Daniels, and Ally VanTimmeren, as well as a halftime jersey ceremony for Katelynn Flaherty.

Bart Torvik's algorithm favors the Wolverines by 7.1 points. The Terps have had a wild ride in conference play, winning their last six — including road games at Michigan State and Ohio State — after starting 5-6 in Big Ten games.

While an ease-up in the schedule has helped that recent streak, they’re plenty capable of pulling the upset, and they'll have the added motivation of playing for a chance at a top-four seed in the BTT and the accompanying double-bye. They’re particularly strong in the paint, standing among the country’s best at both offensive rebounding and two-point defense.