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| Jacob Hamilton | jhamilt3/mlive.com/TNS |
When we saw this team for the first time, we thought they could bring a National Championship to Ann Arbor. When we saw the team play in Vegas, we thought they might go undefeated. The team Dusty put on the floor this year was special and last night they proved it again, in a much different way.
Dan Hurley might be a crazy man but he can coach basketball and he did all he could to derail the Wolverines last night. As expected, they slowed down the pace and tried to shoot the Wolverines out of the gym. Whether it was Michigan's solid defense or the Husky shooters were just off, that plan failed. Michigan was too big and too talented to lose on Monday night.
Before I get to the star of the game, a huge hat tip goes to Yax. His performance last night in my mind goes right up there with Isiah Thomas playing on a severely sprained ankle against the Lakers in the NBA Finals. He gutted out 13 points in 36 minutes and didn't even come off the floor in the first half. Now to Elliott Cadeau, the star of the game. Michigan had a limited Yax, zero 3 point shooting for most of the game, and early Mara was not scoring down low. This was setting up to be a Hurley special and Cadeau said no, thank you, this is our year! He lead the Wolverines with 19 points and instead of assisting he stepped up and scored a ton of big baskets. He had one of his best scoring games of the year during the biggest game.
UConn hit nine 3 point shots during the game and the Wolverines only made 2. The difference in the game was Michigan scoring 25 points from the free throw line and UConn clearly being in foul trouble all game. UConn only had 12 points from the line.
The game wasn't pretty, it was a tough defensive match-up as both teams struggled to shoot the ball. Michigan who had scored 90 points in every tournament game only managed to put up 69 points. Still that was enough to beat the Huskies. I would also be remiss if I didn't call out McKinney who hit a huge late 3 and made 2 important free throws after Gayle had missed two from the line. Those points from McKinney made it very difficult for UConn to make a Duke game comeback.
Dusty has done a tremendous job turning this program around and last night netted him and Michigan a National Championship. I still think I'm in shock, I 100% know I was when Gayle threw the ball down the court to close out the game. To quote Dusty, "it still feels like we have another game to prepare for" It's going to be a really long day at work as I'm 100% gassed.
Congratulations to this team, the Michigan Program, and to us! We deserve nights like last night and I hope we have many more to come!
Go Blue to the National Champions!
- A sign this process never sleeps: The transfer portal opened at Midnight last night while the Wolverines were celebrating in the locker room. The staff had it opened and scouting for next year.
8 comments:
Hail to the victors.
Great win. I was going berserk watching Michigan missing all those lay-ups. Don't watch much basketball .... but is this normal, or I got too excited? I heard that a tournament in Los Vegas was paying 300,000 dollars to each player for winning tournament {{money ball}} .... remember when Ohio State football players were selling a trinket and cause an uproar and Tressel got canned?
I am thrilled I home from Dubai...came last week... to watch the Elite 8.....Congrats to all the Michigan nations....I bet OSU fans are upset...
Blue for life
Dusty is an ELITE talent evaluator. He doesn't just go into the portal and pull guys willy nilly. Morez Johnson was a bench player at Illinois. Mara couldn't get off the bench. Cadeau was under utilized at UNC. But Dusty saw how they'd fit into his system and when out and got them. Then he went after Lendeborg offering him more money than he'd get in the NBA. some want to say Michigan bought a championship....guess what? welcome to the current landscape of college sports. Sparty wants to cry cause Tommy's sitting on a wad of NIL cash and acting like the money is coming out of his own pocket.
Juwan got some high level recruits because of his NBA and Fab Five pedigree, but had no clue how to utilize them. Dusty not only can evaluate talent, but knows how to get the most out of them
Of course OSU fans are losers, I mean upset. How about Sparty losers that take from their loser of a coach in Izzo and call Michigan mercenaries. It's amazing that all the players MSU has on their roster are playing for free and for the love of their school. MSU fans that have a clue know that Izzo needs to retire and he's overrated.
OSU fans are the most miserable fans regardless of any circumstances... so enjoy our win...
Go BLUE!!! IMHO!!!
When I take a look at the background of the starters who played at other schools last year before coming to Michigan this year, I am reminded of the characters in the Claymation Christmas special who were on, "The Island of Misfit Toys." All of the odd toys that nobody wanted but yet Santa wanted them. Here, Dusty saw these misfit players, took them as his own and made them into National Champions. I'm juss sayin... IMHOP!!!
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