Michigan has brand-name recognition but Cinderella DNA for March Madness — and a star closer: “Ain’t no luck. This is Tre Donaldson”

When he plays baseball, Tre Donaldson is a switch hitter.

His glove hand is the left. He throws with the right. He prefers to bat lefty.

When Dusty May turns him loose with a March basketball game on the line, either hand will do.

Donaldson is the heartbeat of the Michigan Wolverines, and his heart-stopping, circus-style scoop shot with 59 seconds remaining Saturday cemented their trip to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. Leading 82-79 and fending off a 6-0 Texas A&M run in the final minutes, Michigan needed to regroup late in the shot clock. The objective: Create a mismatch for Donaldson, who went coast-to-coast seven days earlier for a left-handed layup at the buzzer in the Big Ten Tournament semifinal.

This one was with the left hand, too, an underhanded prayer over the reach of Texas A&M’s Solomon Washington.

“When it’s a game on the line, he’s the best player in the country,” said Vlad Goldin, who posted 23 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks in the win. “He’s the best point guard in the country. We believe in him. We found a mismatch, and we just wanted him to take a shot.”

As the Wolverines bid Denver adieu and fly to Atlanta next week, they’re displaying many of the attributes of a deep-tournament team. They have their cold-blooded closer in Donaldson, who seems to have a chip on his shoulder going into a Sweet 16 matchup with his former school, Auburn — “not making no comments on that. I’ll see in Atlanta when we get there,” he said Saturday.

They have imposing size with the double-big lineup of Goldin and Danny Wolf, who also contributed 14 points, nine boards, four assists and three blocks in the second round. They were able to out-muscle an A&M squad that was the best in the country on the offensive glass this season.

“We know they rely on the offensive rebounding, and so I just thought we were getting good hits,” coach Dusty May said. “Our guards were digging basketballs out.”

And despite their brand-name recognition, they have Cinderella DNA from tournaments past. Goldin and head coach Dusty May led Florida Atlantic to the Final Four before transferring together to Michigan, along with other staffers. Wolf played on the 13th-seeded Yale team that pulled off a first-round upset of Auburn in last year’s tournament. (He says that he and Donaldson don’t talk about that much.)

“Nobody’s getting rattled because we’ve all been before. You can tell how our coaches’ huddles are, what they give us coming out of the huddles, how detailed it is,” Donaldson said. “You can tell they’ve been there before. I feel like that’s a big factor.”

It certainly was a factor in the first round, when No. 12 seed UC San Diego threatened to make March Madness mincemeat of Michigan late in regulation. And the experience paid off again when Texas A&M took a double-digit lead early in the second half of the second-round game.

“If you start being scared and trying to find different things that you have to fix, it’s too late to try to change things,” said Goldin, who turns 24 in May. “Do what you did before, trust your work and stay the course.”

That goes for everyone, but especially Donaldson in crunch time. He was 2 for 7 from the floor when he drove to his left for his latest decisive shot. He hadn’t made a 3-pointer all day. His touch seemed off.

But the self-assured guard says that he and an assistant coach emphasize a variety of crafty and challenging finishes during his daily individual workouts. You won’t ever hear him admit to any good fortune being involved in this shot.

“Ain’t no luck. This is Tre Donaldson you’re talking to,” he said. “There’s no luck. I’m putting it in the hole. When big shots come, I’ve gotta knock them down.”

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