Villanova 79, Michigan 62
Turns out rise-up threes are difficult to guard. [Bryan Fuller]
Someone finally solved Michigan's defense.
It took Villanova's historically great offense and Donte DiVincenzo's all-timer of a game. After a slow start, the Wildcats overwhelmed Michigan, going 17-for-30 inside the arc, 10-for-27 from beyond it, and grabbing 12 offensive rebounds. When they missed shots, they followed them. When they pulled up for three, they struck the fear of God into your heart. They were so good they didn't even need double-digit points from Jalen Brunson, the national player of the year, to take home their second national title in three years.
The team that wasn't supposed to be here looked, unfortunately, like they weren't supposed to be here. For the fifth time in six tournament games, Michigan's offense looked out of sorts, and they couldn't afford that against Nova. The Wolverines shot a woeful 3-for-23 from beyond the arc. Moe Wagner scored 11 quick points, then only five the rest of the way, looking increasingly frustrated by his misses and fouls. Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman tried to carry the team in his final collegiate game, only for his 23 points to go for naught. No other Michigan player reached double digits until Zavier Simpson's layup with under four minutes to play.
Mood. [Fuller]
Thus capped an unbelievable run for a Michigan team unlike any we've seen since John Beilein's arrival. They came one game short of a most improbable national title with a couple transfers and freshmen added to the leftovers from last year's similarly improbable run to the Sweet Sixteen. Depending on NBA Draft decisions, this team may only lose Abdur-Rahkman and Duncan Robinson, and they bring in arguably the most talented recruiting class Beilein has landed. Even if Wagner (or, less likely, Charles Matthews) goes pro, they will be loaded for another deep postseason run.
Tonight went as many expected, and every missed opportunity at a national championship stings. We got a lot more out of this team than anyone imagined, though. The heads may hang tonight, but this group will stand tall forever, and this may well be the precursor to something even greater.
[Hit THE JUMP for the more photos box score.]
All photos from San Antonio by Bryan Fuller. All photos from the Crisler Center by Marc-Gregor Campredon.
Maybe you should take the rest of the night off, pal. Just set the mic down and walk away.
And yet you're here.
Seems like you care a little bit.
3-23 from three . . . ouch. It was always going to take a huge effort to beat these guys and that sure wasn't going to do it. That was frustrating.
But then, we shot terribly from the perimeter in five of six tournament games, and even during the regular season we had our share of games where we just couldn't fill it up consistently. For this team to win 33 games, the BTT and reach the championship game in spite of its limitations represents a phenomenal job by Beilein and his staff.
Wait, thought you didn't care about basketball.
Got a new perspective in the three minutes since you got called out. Impressive.
Impulsively disappointed/crushed does not equal apathetic.
Call me when you had Maize Rage seats for the entirety of your college years, with zero tournament appearances to show for it, and still went to pretty much every game. Sat by myself in the freaking maize seats to watch Tommy Amaker teams lose. Don't show up and say you don't care, change your mind, then rag on people who do, especially when they did when no one else did. Troll.
I'll take him. Second round?
Shit... WTF?
At least we aren't Sparty. I'll hold on to that until I die.
Brilliant performance IMO. Stupid is as stupid can get away with.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FiQYsGNI4M
That little video is a nice snippet. This season has taught me that even when you admit to raping someone, it doesn't mean it's over. Keep fighting Sparty. God loves you.
Whats with bench players destroying us in the finals? Divincenzo looked like James Harden out there. This feels a lot better than 2013 when we lost to crooked refs and slimeball pitino. All those and 1 drives they had were horrid phantom foul calls but that had no bearing on the outcome of the game and is a pretty small gripe. I'd hoped we'd shoot better from 3, instead we end the game on a 1-19 streak from 3, how the fuck does that happen? Well, the first 10 or so minutes were fun.
Shooting is a fickle thing. Poor performance in that regard. Ah well. It might have been a different game if someone started to hit shots? At the same time, damn, Nova was just nasty. Not much to say. They beat us fair and square. It happens. Go blue.
I think they were undefeated while healthy.
Our offense begged them again and again to just kill us and finally they killed us.
I don't know if TV could convey the dejection and depletion of throwing up such a barrage of missed shots. Of knowing no one but Moe had any confidence in their outside shot or any idea where their shot was going.
I strongly feel our offense tonight broke our defense.
I don't think they figured it out, I think Divencenzo was unconscious, but I think also the will to get stops and to finish stops with the defensive rebound just eventually leaves you when you know you'll never score.
And he'll continue to develop and this will be valuable experience. I think we've learned by now that it's more than likely a player is going to get better under this staff, look forward to what Livers brings next year.
Looking at the box score, wow - outside of Divincenzo and Bridges, the rest of the Nova team shot 10-30. We held the National Player of the Year to 9 points of 4-13 shooting, 2 assists and 2 turnovers. Aside from defensive rebounding (which was surprisingly poor), can't fault the defensive effort that much. Only so much you can do when a guy's draining heat-check threes.
Great team, great run. That was fun...tonight, not so much.
Rewatched half of it to see if I felt differently. Nope. Thoughts
1) Z/X played great vs. Brunson. Really frustrated him. Didn't hear one mention of it on the broadcast. (If they had called a couple of those elbows that Brunson threw, I would have liked it.)
2) From 11:00 left in the first half to the double technical (when I stopped watching), the refs were truly brutal. It hurt. It impacted the game. After the rewatch, I don't feel any better
3) Z, Matthews, Poole, Livers and Robinson combined for 0-11 on uncontested 3's. Make 4 of those (i.e. their season avg) and the game is tied with 10 minutes left.
4) We just missed ~4 'and 1s'. And then went ~3/8 on the FTs . That's another 6-8 points.
I'd say the team played well and shot poorly. Getting good shots and missing them is a random part of basketball.
That will not get it done in any game, much less the Championship final.
And a good number of those were threes were uncontested. Hit a few more of those, go 9/23 (39%) instead, and that's 18 points. Meanwhile, Villanova, mostly you-know-who, was hitting contested threes.
The (12) ORBs and follow up baskets where the other big difference- seems like they made almost every one of them.
Villanova is really good- but not really that much better. Play ten times maybe they win six
Started strong and faded somewhat, although he was probably playing with the most confidence for Michigan. But some weaknesses in his physical and emotional game showed- not the least of which was that technical that gave him an extra foul and meant he had to sit and play more cautiously on D the rest of the way.
I am wondering if that might negatively affect his NBA draft stock. I believe he would definitely benefit from another year under Beilein's tutelage.
:-)
It seemed like we did a fantastic job of defending 'nova at the 3-point line. They responded by just shooting from so far outside they were left uncovered. Normally that's not a great strategy, but damn, those guys can shoot.
They also dominated us on the offensive boards.
On our end, we had one of those nights where the entire team was missing. Duncan, Livers, Poole and Teske contributed next to nothing offensively. We just didn't have the firepower tonight.
Nova shot better, and just plain beat us.
We had a great season. Too bad it had to end this way, but Michigan greatly outperformed expectations, and frankly overachieved based on their talent.
The future is bright, and we have some great memories.
Go Blue!
Back to Back Big Ten Banners!
Sweet 16 Banner!
Elite 8 Banner!
Final Flour Banner!
National Titel Game
in the last 6 years...4 Sweet 16s , 3 Elite 8s, 2 Final Fours and 2 Title Games
The Leaders and BEST! Lest anyone forget our basketball program before Belien arrived...
We don't raise banners for the Sweet 16 or Elite Eight. Definitely a great run though.
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