LOS ANGELES – When the NCAA Tournament field gets narrowed down to 16 teams, the games are normally extremely competitive, but that wasn't the case Thursday night in Los Angeles.
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The Michigan basketball team jumped all over Texas A&M from the tip and cruised to its third Elite 8 appearance in six years.
Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman made a layup to put Michigan up 16-6 just 6 minutes and 27 seconds into the game. Texas A&M never got back within single digits. Before 12 minutes of game time had passed, the Wolverines were up more than 20 points and never looked back.
At one point, Michigan led the Aggies by 29 points before a mini 5-0 run cut it to 52-28 at the half. Texas A&M got within 18 points for 27 seconds in the second half, and an Abdur-Rahkman triple silenced that run before it got started.
Variety of contributors
Michigan picked apart a defense that was ranked No. 8 in the nation coming into the Sweet 16 matchup. In the first half, the Wolverines had seven different players make a 3-point basket. In the second half, Charles Matthews and Abdur-Rahkman crushed the much larger Aggies in the paint.
Abdur-Rahkman was Michigan's leading scorer at 24 points. He also contributed five rebounds and seven assists.
Zavier Simpson scored 11 points on 5-8 shooting and was Michigan's best all-around player. He had four rebounds, five assists and six steals, leading an impressive defensive stand against a team that had just scored 86 points on the defending national champion North Carolina Tarheels.
Star center Moritz Wagner was up to the challenge against Texas A&M's huge front court, scoring 21 points on 8-12 shooting.
Matthews finished with 18 points and five rebounds.
Next stop
Michigan will face the No. 9 seed Florida State in the Elite 8. On Saturday, they'll have a chance to play for a spot in the Final Four.
The last time Michigan got to an Elite 8, it suffered a last-second loss to Kentucky at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
The game is set for 8:49 p.m. on TBS.