CHICAGO – The No. 1-seeded Michigan Wolverines are the Midwest Regional Champion and are advancing to their first Final Four since 2018 after blowing out the No. 6-seeded Tennessee Volunteers 95-62 in the Elite Eight.
Michigan on Sunday, March 29, continued its historic season under head coach Dusty May in the 35th win of the year in front of a pro-Wolverines crowd.
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Coming into the matchup, point guard Elliot Cadeau approached the game just three points shy of 1,000 for his career and seven assists shy of 600.
Cadeau scored early in the game with a floater and a three-pointer with 7:52 to play for the 1,002nd point of his collegiate career.
He found Chicago kid Nimari Burnett for his sixth assist in the second half to reach the 600 mark and achieve both milestones.
Cadeau finished with eight points and 10 assists in the victory.
Michigan blew the game open after trailing 16-14 with 11:14 to play, going on a 21-0 run before Tennessee big man Jaylen Caren scored their first basket with under six minutes to play in the first half.
The Wolvernies turned defense into offense throughout the first half, leading 48-26 despite Aday Mara and Morez Johnson Jr. both picking up two fouls early.
Yaxel Lendeborg led all scorers with 15 points in the first half, all over the floor, making plays, including a reverse layup while drawing the foul, looking like Michael Jordan did back in the 1990s, which is fitting, as they were in his house and Lendeborg wears No. 23.
Lendeborg finished with 27 points, seven rebounds, and four assists in the game’s blowout victory, while Cadeau had eight points and nine assists in the blowout victory.
POSTGAME SOUND COMING
1st half
Michigan won the tip but couldn’t convert as Tennessee gained possession off a steal and hit Bishop Boswell for a wide-open three-pointer for the game’s first points.
Mara scored Michigan’s first basket with a massive dunk to cut the deficit to one before Burnett grabbed an offensive rebound and got fouled on the putback, sending him to the line for two.
Burnett made both as Michigan took a 4-3 lead with under 18 minutes to play.
Former Ohio State Buckeyes big man Felix Okpara drew a foul on Mara but missed both free throws.
Tennessee got the rebound and drew a foul on Johnson Jr.
Michigan came out of the timeout and forced a defensive stop, leading to a contested layup attempt by Johnson, who was fouled by Okpara, sending him to the line for two, where he made both to take an 8-7 lead.
Roddy Gayle Jr. picked up his first foul of the game prior to the play.
Mara picked up his second foul in less than five minutes of game action, sending Ament to the line, making both.
Yaxel Lendeborg couldn’t convert on the other end with a three-point attempt before forcing a turnover on defense.
Gayle Jr. cleaned the glass on a Cadeau floater with a monster putback jam.
Okpara picked up his second foul of the game before Lendeborg made a contested layup.
Michigan tried to turn defense into offense, but Trey McKenney missed a wide-open three.
J.P. Estrella made a jump hook to cut the deficit to 12-11 before Lendeborg got hammared under the basket.
Gillespie made a three-pointer off an assist from Amen beforeMcKenney followed suit with a jumper of his own to tie the game at 14-14.
Burnett got called for his first foul of the game, sending forward Jaylen Carey to the line for two before a timeout was called with 11:22 to play.
Nate Ament made a driving layup before Mara made a bad inbounds pass that was stolen by Ja’Kobi Gillespie who missed a layup, but Boswell tipped it in.
Cadeau made a driving layup before a timeout was called as Michigan trailed 7-6 with 15:56 to play.
Michigan came out of the timeout and forced a defensive stop, leading to a Johnson contested layup attempt, which Okpara fouled, sending him to the line for two, making both to take an 8-7 lead.
Roddy Gayle Jr. picked up his first foul of the game prior to the play.
Mara picked up his second foul in less than five minutes of game action, sending Ament to the line, making both.
Lendeborg couldn’t convert on the other end with a three-point attempt before forcing a turnover on defense.
Gayle Jr. cleaned the glass on a Cadeau floater with a monster putback jam.
Okpara picked up his second foul of the game before Lendeborg made a contested layup.
Michigan tried to turn defense into offense, but Trey McKenney missed a wide-open three.
J.P. Estrella made a jump hook to cut the deficit to 12-11 before Lendeborg got hammared under the basket.
Gillespie made a three-pointer off an assist from Amen beforeMcKenney followed suit with a jumper of his own to tie the game at 14-14.
Carey made both free throws to take a 16-14 lead.
McKenney got fouled before Johnson Jr. drew a foul on Carey, sending him to the line for two, splitting the pair.
McKenney stole the ball but was blocked, leading to a steal attempt by Johnson Jr., but he was called for his second foul of the game.
Mara got inserted with his two fouls at the 10:13 mark and got an inbounds steal and kickout to Lendeborg, who got hacked at the rim, sending him to the line for two, making both.
Mara got fouled while attempting to grab a defensive rebound by DeWayne Brown II, sending him to the line for a one-in-one, making the first and the second as Michigan led 19-16 with under 10 minutes to play.
Lendeborg, in the house that Michael Jordan built, put on an aerobatic up-and-under layup and drew the foul, making the free-throw to cap off a three-point play.
Michigan turned defense into offense as Lendeborg drove coast-to-coast to find a wide-open Gayle Jr. for a three-pointer as the Maize Rage erupted with “Let’s Go Blue” chants as Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes called a timeout with 8:45 as the Wolverines led 25-16.
After trailing 16-14 with 11:14 to play, Michigan went on an 11-0 run in under three minutes to take a nine-point lead.
Michigan got a stop, and Lendeborg found Cadeau for a contested three-pointer to push the scoring run to 14-0, taking a 28-16 lead.
The lid was covered for Tennessee, who remained scoreless as Mara got a defensive rebound and scored a basket on the other end to take a 30-16 lead.
Lendeborg drained a three-pointer before Burnett made a layup to push the run to 21-0, leading to a timeout by Barnes with 6:10 to play as Michigan led 35-16.
Michigan got a steal, but Burnett turned the ball over as Tennessee remained scoreless before Carey made a contested layup to snap the six-minute drought.
Cadeau got fouled on the other end and went to the line, splitting the pair.
Tennessee couldn’t convert on the other end, but Cadeau went coast to coast for the contested floater.
Lendeborg found Gayle Jr. for a wide-open three-pointer, but he missed, leading to an offensive rebound for Lendeborg, who got fouled on the play.
An official’s timeout was called with 3:56 to play as Michigan led 38-18.
Lendeborg went to the line to shoot two, missing both.
Carey scored a contested layup to cut the deficit to 18, but Lendeborg drained a three-pointer before Will Tschetter picked up his first foul of the game, sending Ament to the line for a one-in-one, but he missed, and Brown II picked up an offensive foul on Gayle Jr., who missed both free throws.
Gayle Jr. was called for goaltending on Carey, but the play was challenged by May, who felt the block looked clean on instant replay.
After review, the call was overturned, but Tennessee had possession, so they retained the ball.
Gillespie crossed over Tschetter and drained a three-pointer, then drew a foul on Cadeau, who tried to follow up on his missed sending Carey to the line for a one-in-one, but he missed.
Gayle Jr. got called for his second foul of the game on Estrella, who split the pair.
Michigan didn’t score on back-to-back possessions as Carey made a floater to cut the deficit to 15 before Tschetter got fouled on a defensive rebound attempt by Estrella.
Tschetter went to the line with 58.6 to play and made both to push the lead to 17.
Michigan turned defense into offense as Cadeau stole the ball under the basket, then drove the floor, finding a cutting Burnett, who hit Lendeborg for a contested layup to take a 45-26 lead with 32.6 to play before Michigan called a timeout.
Etrella tried to dunk on a Michigan defender, but he missed, leading to a Michigan fastbreak where Lendeborg found McKenney for a contested three-pointer to take a 48-26 lead into the half.
Michigan led by 22 points in the first half and was 20 minutes away from cutting down the nets in Chicago.
They kept the Volunteers players to single-digits and needed to keep their intensity up in the second half to make their Dreams Come To Fruition.
2nd half
Michigan opened the half with a Mara touch in the paint, but he couldn’t convert.
Tennessee followed suit, but did not convert on its first possession.
But Lendeborg got the first points of the half with a putback bunny, then Estrella made a hook shot, followed by Mara with a dunk.
He then came down and hit a pull-up three-pointer, but Gillespie hit a three as well.
Mara turned the ball over as Estrella got the steal, leading to a Gillespie three-pointer, but Lendeborg made a wide-open dunk from an assist from Cadeau.
Cadeau found Burnett for a three-pointer before Mara got a massive block on the other end of the floor to the amazement of the crowd.
The assist was his sixth of the game and his 600th of his career.
Carey was called for a foul, and Michigan led 64-30 with 15:15 to play.
Lendeborg found his groove and drained a three-pointer to take a 29-point lead before Johnson Jr. got tangled up with Evanson on a rebound attempt, leading to pushing and shoving as Carey pushed Johnson Jr. from behind, leading to technical free throws.
Lendeborg went to the line and split the pair.
Michigan inbounded the ball to Johnson Jr., who was fouled at the rim, sending him to the line for two, which he split.
Johnson Jr. picked up his third foul of the game, as Mara subbed in for him.
Gillespie found Okpara for an alley-oop before Cadeau hit Lendeborg under the basket for an easy bunny.
Cadeau turned the ball over, and Brown II cleaned up the glass following a chase-down by Lendeborg.
Lendeborg followed his own miss from three with a putback, and Gillespie made a layup.
Cadeau turned the ball over again, leading to another chasedown attempt by Lendeborg, but he got dunked on by Gillespie, sending him to the line to cap off a three-point play as he smiled while walking back to the Michigan bench during a timeout with 10:41 to play, leading 71-44.
Michigan led by as much as 31 in the game as they cruised to the Final Four.
National Champion Colston Loveland got a standing ovation from the crowd as the Chicago Bears tight end was in attendance.
Gillespie made the and one.
Mckenney got fouled on a three-point shot, sending him to the line where he converted all three to take a 74-45 lead.
Michigan forced a 24-second violation.
McKenney got tied up on the inbounds with the possession arrow in favor of Tennessee.
Cadeau picked up his second foul of the game before Okpara punished his defender in the post for a layup.
Amen picked up a foul, tackling Johnson Jr. during a rebound attempt.
Okpara cleaned up a sloppy possession for an uncontested layup before Johnson Jr. got fouled on a layup, sending him to the line for a three-point play, which he did not convert.
Amen made a contested jumper over McKenney, capping off a three-point play as they trailed 76-52 with 8:03 to play.
Amen fouled Burnett on the inbound, sending him to the line for a one-in-one, making the first and then the second as Michigan led by 26.
Mara picked up his fourth foul, and then Amen picked up his fourth foul, sending Johnson Jr. to the line, making both to take an 80-52 lead.
Michigan turned defense into offense again as a missed shot led to a Gayle Jr. three-pointer as they led 83-52 with 5:35 to play.
Johnson Jr. got called for his fourth foul of the game, sending Okpara to the line for two, making both.
Cadeau hit his 10th assists of the game, finding Johnson Jr. for a wideopen dunk.
Johnson Jr. got fouled on an alley-oop attempt from Cadeau, sending him to the line for two, making both.
Okpara made a jumper to cut the deficit to 31 before a timeout was called with 3:30 to play.
Gillespie made a layup to cut the deficit to 87-58.
Oscar Goodman got inserted and made a bucket, then got a block to the roar of the Michigan faithful.
McKenney got fouled and sent to the line for two free throws, making both with 11:43 to play.
Goodman got a steal but got it stolen from him, leading to a Brown II and one over Charlie May.
Brown II got the putback before Charlie May drilled a corner three-pointer.