Michigan 86, LSU 78
I had an entire post written about how Michigan blew up the early narrative of this game, which was LSU's incredible shot-making being too much to overcome for a Wolverines team missing their most reliable bucket-getter. When I went to hit submit, my still-shaking hands hit the wrong button, and I blew up my own post. This feels apropos.
So let's do the short version because my brain is still going AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH after one of the more fun, and therefore partisan nerve-destroying, games of the entire tournament. For most of the first half and a decent chunk of the second, it appeared that Cam Thomas and Javonte Smart would hit pullup jumper after pullup jumper, no matter how difficult, and LSU would do just enough on defense to pull off the upset.
Michigan refused to allow that to happen, grinding away a nine-point first-half deficit at the line after LSU's seventh foul to take an improbable 43-42 halftime lead. After Thomas opened 6/7 from the field, he closed 4/16 as Juwan Howard unleashed Chaundee Brown on him. Brown added a season-high 21 points, 14 after the break, to tie for the team lead with an inspired Eli Brooks, who drained 5/9 three-pointers.
Franz Wagner put the game out of reach at the end, hitting a hook, resetting for a three-pointer, dunking off a Hunter Dickinson outlet pass to break a press, putting back a Dickinson miss in traffic, and smothering a Thomas drive on the final Tigers possession with a sliver of hope. Nine of Wagner's 15 points came after halftime. Hunter Dickinson, who battled foul trouble in a poorly officiated game on both sides, managed an efficient 12-point, 11-board double-double in 31 minutes and did his usual bending of LSU's defense to open up the perimeter.
My narrative didn't survive the publishing process, which is how I refer to misclicks. Thankfully, Michigan's basketball team is much less shaky in the clutch. The Wolverines move on to their fourth Sweet Sixteen in a row and sixth in the last eight NCAA Tournaments. They'll face Florida State, convincing winners over Colorado this evening. Enjoy it as best as your nerves allow and be careful operating machinery.
[Hit THE JUMP for the box score.]
March 22nd, 2021 at 10:42 PM ^
I feel that it’s never really official until Ace post the final score. Very proud of this team! Go Blue!
March 22nd, 2021 at 10:47 PM ^
Great sign Michigan defeated LSU at their own game. 86-78. LSU averages 80pt a game.
UM can play you slow, they can play a track-meet, and defeat you any style you want.
The FSU game is gonna be brutal. FSU is better than LSU. How much better? We will find out Sunday evening when its practically guaranteed UM plays FSU prime-time on CBS.
Oh, and letting 25% of the stadium full of fans is nice advantage for UM. These are home games for UM, and it will be another home game vs FSU.
March 22nd, 2021 at 10:51 PM ^
Wade is a dumbass. He ran his 2 guys into the ground. They each played 40 minutes. (Watford didn’t get much rest either before fouling out.) Our highest was 33 minutes.
March 22nd, 2021 at 11:08 PM ^
Might have been some fatigue affecting them at the end; they didn't seem to have anything left to throw at us.
The first round game wasn't any fun at all in the second half, but a big part of that was Juwan rolling out wonky lineups for extended periods of time and rolling with them. Seems trite to say that he was just getting guys minutes in active game situations, but he clearly was and it was surely a benefit to have guys like Terrance Williams in key situations with some more, fresh experience under his belt.
March 23rd, 2021 at 12:53 AM ^
The big lineup of Brooks-Wagner-Brown-Johns-Dickinson changed and won the game. Smith was -11 in 32 minutes, which means UM was +19 in the 8 minutes he was out.
It hurt to watch Mike tonight. Fsu has bigger players too, and by stats apparently more disciplined rather than going for steals or nothing.
Maybe a more structured D will actually work better for Mike's style. Those freaks just essentially destroy flow & rhythm on O with the gambling & pressing.
But next time he's so clearly out of his element we really can't wait for him to pile up another -11. There may not be a 2nd chance to bounce back.
Mike Smith had a tough night for sure. He looked like a Freshman down the stretch and Juwan made the right call pulling him out at the end. I expect him to ball out in the next one.
March 22nd, 2021 at 11:16 PM ^
This. I wondered why LSU practically stopped playing defense if they failed to trap us towards the end of the game. Then I saw that Wade played 3 guys 115 minutes. He ran those guys into the ground.
March 22nd, 2021 at 11:38 PM ^
I just checked; over the entire season, Thomas averaged exactly 34 minutes per game and Smart averaged 35.6 minutes per game. That was his usage all year.
March 22nd, 2021 at 11:17 PM ^
Yeah, you could tell they lost their legs on both ends midway through that 4th quarter.
March 22nd, 2021 at 11:20 PM ^
True but not sure if he had much of a choice tonight (although certainly he has the entire year to prepare his team better and develop some depth)
March 22nd, 2021 at 11:50 PM ^
He didn't have a lot of options. They were the only players who had any chance of scoring enough to keep up with Michigan. (Watford had 11 for the game but there's no way he could have picked up the slack when one of the two scorers was out.) And the defense could have focused on the one remaining scorer - probably making the one scorer on the court less able to score at his normal rate. If he had rested each of them for a long enough time to stay fresh it's likely they would have had substantially fewer points than they did.
Wade had only two options - and neither one was a good one.
Wade had/has options-he took an entire season and chose not to develop them. And this is why Juwan's team won.
March 23rd, 2021 at 12:04 AM ^
He maxed out his salary cap on 3 players and had no other players. Woops, gotta manage better.
March 22nd, 2021 at 10:58 PM ^
I feel like FSU is similar to LSU in length, athleticism but the difference is FSU is a worse shooting team and they can defend a lot better than LSU. It's still a winnable game for Michigan. FSU and Bama don't scare me. Gonzaga and Baylor are the only two teams that scares me
March 22nd, 2021 at 11:01 PM ^
We’ve seen this FSU team before in the LA regional semis a couple of years ago. We are better, they are not
March 23rd, 2021 at 10:29 AM ^
Total misfabrication of the circumstances...we have to stop believing a team we played years ago “is the same” FSU is much bigger than LSU. They have a lottery pick(Scottie Barnes), and he’s more in the Draymond Green mold than the scorer mold of Smart/Thomas. The one advantage Michigan usually has is their size on the front line. FSU can run out a frontline of 7’1, 6’9” & 6’8” as well. They are a disciplined defensive squad, more in the Mold of the Texas Tech team that we lost to in the Sweet 16 in 2019.
March 23rd, 2021 at 12:07 AM ^
They have a legit sized center though. Will be interesting to see how that plays out. I do trust Howard to make the necessary adjustments.
Dickenson owned Garza. I think having a bigger C to play against may equal out calls.
Tonight he looked like Andre the Giant fighting the Dread Pirate Roberts
Alabama rains 3s. They are scary
They shoot 32% from 3 pt as a team(Pre-tournament). They shoot high volume with low efficiency from that area.
They're a much better defensive team than on offense but their center position is pretty small. Michigan should be able to deal with Bama.
March 22nd, 2021 at 11:01 PM ^
Nice to have home field advantage for once versus so many Florida and California bowl games over the years.
March 22nd, 2021 at 11:15 PM ^
FSU had zero 2-point field goals in the first TEN MINUTES of their game today, they looked awful in the entire first half.
That said, any team is tough at this point, but I like this matchup for us better than LSU frankly.
FSU's offense is worse than LSU's, though their defense is much better. But overall they really aren't that far behind in KenPom. FSU is 13, LSU 22; according to KenPom, LSU should've been a #6 seed. Maybe I'm wrong, but strong offenses scare me more at this point, especially with Livers out.
On the other hand, I hope UCLA can down Bama, they looked very sharp tonight.
We've seen Maryland not defend the 3 well in earlier games, notably against Michigan. And that is just something you can't do against Bama as they can shoot it with the best of them.
I saw one highlight from the Bama game. All five Maryland defenders retreated well inside the 3 point line. The first Bama player down the court stopped a foot outside the line, got the ball and made a wide open three. Uh, Coach Turgeon, maybe you want to try coaching?
I mean any game at this point is going to be against a good team. FSU doesn't scare me as much as LSU just because it can be more predictable. LSU is one of those teams that can just light it up on offense any given night and outshoot their bad defense. They almost did it against UM and they almost did it against Bama in the SEC championship game.
I think we would rather play FSU than Colorado. Colorado is a top 10 Kenpom team with a better O and D than FSU. I think UC is one of the better 3pt shoot teams as well. They just lost to FSU because they had a bad night. They got up more shots than FSU, out rebounded FSU and a bunch more 3s...which just didn't go down. I think it's one of those things that happens.
March 23rd, 2021 at 10:27 AM ^
The biggest issue against FSU is going to be their insane size advantage at the guard spots. I have no idea how we're going to counter that with FSU's PG being probably 10" taller than Smith
March 23rd, 2021 at 11:05 AM ^
Yeah, I'd guess Smith isn't playing 32 minutes on Sunday, unless he goes Lou Brock on FSU or something.
March 22nd, 2021 at 10:47 PM ^
Thats a strong ass performance. Basketball always seems to deliver. Clutch win, another banner, and cheating [vacated] can go home
March 22nd, 2021 at 10:49 PM ^
Crazy stat: they put up 17 more shots than us. Yes, we had more turnovers by 9, but we also out-rebounded them by 7. FT attempts were also just about even, 25-23. Weird.
March 22nd, 2021 at 10:50 PM ^
Chaundee Brown being +19 is, for me, the narrative of this game
March 22nd, 2021 at 11:21 PM ^
Yeah 100% this is the kind of game Chaundee is built for
March 22nd, 2021 at 11:32 PM ^
If he's canning 3's and getting to the rim occasionally, UM doesn't miss Livers quite as much... You know you're going to get lights out D from him always....could well be a slogfest against FSU and he's built for those type of games...
March 23rd, 2021 at 12:01 AM ^
Interesting that in the first game Smith had what was probably his best game and Chaundee had his worst. In the second it was reversed. That's what makes this team so consistent. They have people who can get hot and be key contributors when one or two people are having off nights.
March 23rd, 2021 at 12:22 AM ^
I totally hear your point, but Smith’s performance against Maryland in the BTT (18 pts, 15 assists, 5 rebounds, 2 steals, 0 turnovers) was one of the all-time great college PG performances. That was undoubtedly his best one.
March 23rd, 2021 at 10:40 AM ^
Can't argue with that.
March 22nd, 2021 at 10:50 PM ^
That was a team win--everyone contributed, which is how you win in the big show.
March 22nd, 2021 at 11:11 PM ^
It's what they've been doing all season. That plus half-time adjustments and on the fly defensive changeups = win. Building a culture, teaching in practice, adjusting in-game. Juwan can flat out coach.
March 22nd, 2021 at 11:37 PM ^
I'd like to think Mike saved something for fsu! He didn't use any magic or miracles up tonight!
March 22nd, 2021 at 10:54 PM ^
Nervous? Me?
ch ch ch ch ch ch ... waz that noyz...schung shewung schung . . . huh?
Never.
March 22nd, 2021 at 10:54 PM ^
LSU seemed like they had EVERYTHING drop in the first 15 minutes. They only had 3 turnovers and STILL couldn't win. I love how this UM team can take a team's absolute best shot and still come away with the W!
March 22nd, 2021 at 11:12 PM ^
That TO stat is wild.
March 22nd, 2021 at 11:23 PM ^
3 turnovers + 8 assists = a team that doesn't pass the ball and run plays a lot. LSU seemed to get the ball upcourt quick and hoist it. They started hot but couldn't sustain that pace. We were simply more efficient once we got settled in.
March 22nd, 2021 at 11:26 PM ^
This is 100% true. LSU's best shot was the first half and it got them a one point deficit. And all it did was show Juwan what he needed to adjust to. Michigan has so many dimensions to their game; if they can keep the score within reach during the first half, they will pull out another couple angles in the second and pull away. You know coach went into the locker knowing exactly what needed to be done to counter.
The difficulty is going to come when they run into a team that has a couple more angles they can go to. This is when we're really going to feel the loss of Livers. Johns seemed to do OK tonight. Let's hope the young man continues to find his stride. I'd like to see him be able to hit a couple threes and to be a little more careful with the ball.
And what the heck gets into Dickinson sometimes? Tossing that dude out of the key? Reaching in at half court? LOL. Maybe he's been watching Wagner and got jealous of his Gumby arms.
March 22nd, 2021 at 11:31 PM ^
This is 100% true. LSU's best shot was the first half and it got them a one point deficit.
Things looked bad in the first half. Really rough. A few times we'd chip away and then LSU would pull right back out. Pit-of-the-stomach bad, like when we played Illinois.
The way the team clawed back when things were tough was so huge. Bit by bit. FT by FT. Huge. Showed that, even when LSU went on runs in the second half, they could get it done.
March 23rd, 2021 at 12:01 AM ^
Eli Brooks went above and beyond in the first half to help keep our head above water when it looked bad. That’s a leader with ice in his veins.
And what the heck gets into Dickinson sometimes? Tossing that dude out of the key? Reaching in at half court? LOL. Maybe he's been watching Wagner and got jealous of his Gumby arms.
I think it's easy to forget how inexperienced he is. I had the impression that his usage was being managed a little yesterday but I see he still got over 30 minutes so I guess my impression was off
I guess the good thing is he is more likely to return for at least another year. I don't think his game is NBA ready yet
March 23rd, 2021 at 10:47 AM ^
In my biased opinion he looked like Hunter was getting fouled a lot when trying to post up. I think he just frustrated or thought the refs were going to let pushing and shoveling go in the paint, but made he's pushing too obvious on at least one of those fouls.
March 23rd, 2021 at 10:21 AM ^
After Dickinson moved that guy forcefully out of the key, I thought Coach Howard was yelling at the refs but he was yelling at Dickinson, "Why did you do that Hunter?."
March 22nd, 2021 at 10:55 PM ^
Man, what a game that was! Seems like midway through the second half, they picked up the defensive intensity. That's when Smart and Thomas started slowing down and having a lot more trouble with the hero ball. A great game adjustment!
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