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Michigan overpowered Arizona early and humbled the Wildcats, turning the Final Four meeting, billed as the ‘Game of the Year’, into a 91-73 Wolverines highlight reel in Indianapolis.
Junior center Aday Mara scored a career-high 26 points and had nine rebounds, a dinged-up Yaxel Lendeborg had 11 points in 14 minutes and Michigan blew through their fifth straight March Madness opponent by double digits while becoming the first team to break 90 points five times in a single tournament.
Next up: a title matchup Monday against UConn, the 71-62 winner over Illinois in the early semi-final that was billed – wrongly – as the undercard to this battle of No 1 seeds. The Huskies will be seeking their third championship in four seasons.
Michigan and Arizona entered with the nation’s top two defenses, a pair of top-five offenses and somewhere between eight and a dozen future NBA stars between them.
But it was the Wolverines (36-3) who looked like pros, running to a double-digit lead only 5:31 into the contest, then swatting and slamming Arizona into oblivion.
Koa Peat had a quiet 16 points and 11 rebounds for the Big 12 champion Wildcats (36-3). They shot 6 for 17 from 3, 36% overall and had two assists and nine turnovers over a first half that ended with them trailing 48-32. Sparkplug Jaden Bradley got his fourth foul 94 seconds into the second half and finished with 13 points, most in extended garbage time.
In the first game, Tarris Reed Jr had 17 points and 11 rebounds for UConn (34-5), while the fabulous freshman Braylon Mullins scored 15 for the Huskies. They rode strong inside play and tough defense to their 19th straight victory in the Sweet 16 or later rounds of the NCAA Tournament.
They will play for their seventh title, all since 1999, and third under Dan Hurley, who would become the only active coach with more than two.
Mullins, whose buzzer-beating three-pointer sent the Huskies past Duke and into the Final Four, hit a catch-and-shoot three with 52 seconds left – his only basket of the second half – to give UConn a 66-59 lead.
Freshman Keaton Wagler had 20 points and eight rebounds to lead the Fighting Illini (28-9), who reached their first Final Four since losing the championship game to North Carolina in 2005.
Wagler and Mullins became the first pair of freshmen to top 15 points in a Final Four game since Michael Jordan and Patrick Ewing in 1982.
UConn’s Alex Karaban had nine points on 1-of-8 shooting while adding four rebounds and four assists. He’s trying to become the first player since John Wooden’s dominant UCLA teams in the 1960s and 1970s to finish his career as a three-time champion. He also tied Hurley’s brother, Bobby, for second on the career list with 18 March Madness victories.
The Huskies haven’t lost a tournament game played past the opening weekend since 2009, when they fell in the national semi-finals to Michigan State. With one more victory, they would break a tie with North Carolina and move into third place alone in national titles, trailing only UCLA (11) and Kentucky (eight).
