Michigan head coach Dusty May credited the matchup of his frontcourt against Arizona as a bad matchup for the Wildcats in the Wolverines dominant NCAA Tournament National Semifinal win on Saturday. The Wolverines had one of the few frontcourts nationally to match Arizona.
While other teams might have been as big or bigger than Arizona, Michigan is elite defensively, using its length, mass and physicality to match the Wildcats. The Michigan frontcourt dominated Arizona. The Michigan dominance up front helped open the perimeter for the Wolverines.
Michigan dominating inside also helped them to have a 26-12 advantage in points off turnovers. Michigan center Aday Mara finished with 26 points on 11 out of 16 from the field, with nine rebounds, three assists and two blocks while drawing five fouls.
Arizona center Motiejus Krivas finished with 11 points on four out of seven from the field and six rebounds. Michigan completely dominated Arizona with star forward Yaxel Lendeborg scoring 11 points on three out of four from the field with three rebounds while playing only 14:17.
"A lot of it is simply match-ups....when we've played this model, this Arizona model this year...they're the steroid version of Gonzaga and these other teams...if a team relies on scoring 15 feet and in...because of our size, length, it's going to be tough to score enough points 15 feet and in -- if we're making some shots and we're in a decent rhythm offensively.Michigan head coach Dusty May
I think that's what happened tonight....We matched up well with Arizona better than we have some other teams this year."
Playing Gonzaga helped Michigan
Beating Gonzaga 101-61 in November helped Michigan against Arizona. Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd spent 20 years as an assistant to Mark Few at Gonzaga. Playing Gonzaga provided May with a blueprint how to beat Arizona. Arizona head Tommy Lloyd said that he watched Michigan beat Gonzaga beo
None of the Arizona frontcourt players were able to take control. Tobe Awaka finished with eight points on four of seven from the field and nine rebounds, but Ivan Kharchenkov and Koa Peat were inefficient against Michigan in the National Semifinal.
Kharchenov scored six points on two out of eight from the field with four rebounds. Peat made six of his 18 field goal attempts with 11 rebounds. Arizona was unable to rely on its dominant front court, playing a team that could equally dominate and shoot well from the outside.
Michigan made 12 out of 27 three-point shots, while Arizona was six out of 17. Arizona won at Connecticut in November and likely would have dominated a soft Illinois frontline if they had played either of them in the National Semifinal, but Michigan would still likely have been the opponent in the National Championship Game.