Michigan basketball bludgeons Tennessee 95-62 to advance to Final Four
· Yahoo Sports
CHICAGO − Since the offseason, Michigan basketball's catch phrase has been "April habits."
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The Wolverines showed exactly what those championship-level habits look like against Tennessee in the Elite Eight on Sunday, March 29 at United Center.
No. 1 seed Michigan is headed to the Final Four in Indianapolis after it blew the doors off 6-seed Tennessee, 95-62, in the Midwest region final.
It's the program's first trip to college basketball's biggest stage since it played for the national title in 2018.
It happened in a flash, as Michigan played perhaps its best eight-minute stretch since winning the Players Era Festival in November in Las Vegas.
The Wolverines made seven of eight shots, the ball on a string, zipping across every corner, using every inch of the floor. On defense, they swarmed, swatted and stole − not just the ball, but the Volunteers' soul.
Michigan was down by two when it went on a game-changing 24-2 run in less than seven minutes of game time. During that time Tennessee went just 1-for-13 on field goals and turned the ball over four times, going more than six minutes without a field goal. By the time Tennessee regrouped, Michigan led, 38-18, and it was over from there.
Michigan finished with as many buckets in the paint (nine) as Tennessee had from the floor in the first 20 minutes. With Tennessee needing a strong start in the second half, it was the Wolverines putting the pedal to the metal and very quickly there was a sense of celebration in the air.
Yaxel Lendeborg was sensational again, scoring 27 points on 10-for-19 shooting with seven rebounds and four assists. Aday Mara scored 11 points with two blocks, Elliot Cadeau had eight points and a team-high 10 assists as five players scored in double figures.
The finishing touches
Michigan led by 22 at the break and the second half was mostly just for show, but what a show it was.
Lendeborg made a tip-in, Mara caught a lob from Cadeau for a slam then Mara drilled a 3 as a trailer to increase the lead to 55-28.
The lead eventually ballooned to 30 after Lendeborg hit a 3 in front of U-M's bench, then a free throw after a Tennessee technical foul after things got chippy when Morez Johnson Jr. was involved in a jump ball tie up.
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The Wolverines found themselves playing Tennessee's game early on. Physical, bruising, plodding, grinding.
U-M trailed at the midpoint of the half, 16-14, and had made just five field goals, scoring seven of its points from the free throw line. Johnson picked up his second foul at the 10:20 mark, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise as the Wolverines got a smaller and quicker lineup on the court.
Mara and Lendeborg hit four straight free throws, then Lendeborg got a full head of steam as he leapt from the right block and went up and under for a reverse lefty layup finish while drawing a foul for the highlight of the day. On the next trip down, he threw a no-look pass to Roddy Gayle Jr. who drilled a 3-pointer and forced a Tennessee timeout with Michigan up 25-16.
The timeout did not help and the scoring just kept coming.
By the time it was all said and done, Michigan ripped off a 21-0 run (the Volunteers had given up just seven runs of 10-0 or more all season) forcing multiple timeouts and bringing the pro-Michigan crowd into an absolute frenzy.
In all, it was a 34-10 run over the final 10:52 of the opening half, which ended with a 7-0 spurt in the final minute, including a Lendeborg 3 just before the horn. Tennessee made just nine of 37 shots (24.3%) before the break and only went 3-for-13 (23.1%) of its 3s.
Tony Garcia is the Michigan beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan basketball bludgeons Tennessee 95-62 to advance to Final Four