After another long week, Zavier Simpson pushes Michigan past Michigan State

It was only fitting that Zavier Simpson would dribble out the clock.

Of course, he would anyway, by any measure. He is Michigan’s point guard and Michigan’s captain. This is his job, to stand there and wait for the buzzer to punctuate a sea of noise. On Saturday, he extended the ball to a nearby referee once the clock hit zeroes, but after a few seconds, ended up keeping it himself, walking to the handshake line.

“It feels good,” he’d say later. “… Took us a while, but we’ll take it.”

Simpson politely refused to say much about the events of this week, answering questions in predetermined soundbites and keeping the focus on basketball as much as he could.