Michigan 73, Tennessee 71 Comment Count

Ace



After the charge. [Dustin Johnston/UMHoops]

As it turned out, the Sweet Sixteen matchup between Michigan and Tennessee was determined by mismatches up front.

Jeronne Maymon couldn't handle Glenn Robinson III without fouling—or stay in front of any of Michigan's perimeter players—while Jordan Morgan outscored and outrebounded Jarnell Stokes, then all but sealed the victory by taking a charge when Tennessee called Stokes's number with a chance to win the game.

It started with Robinson, who opened the game with an easy blow-by against Maymon for a layup, stymied his post-up opportunity on the other end, and then drew the Tennessee big man's first foul. That set the early tone—Tennessee couldn't hang with Michigan's offense while playing two bigs, but their lack of depth meant going without one also hurt them dearly.

When Maymon checked back in, he quickly picked up his second foul on a Morgan and-one. After another stint on the bench, he allowed Caris LeVert to swoop by him for an easy two and found himself on the pine once again. Maymon would finish with two points, three rebounds—just one offensive—and four fouls in 17 minutes. Robinson scored 13 on nine shots, pulled down five boards (two off.), and held his own in the post for 39 minutes.

With Maymon neutralized, it appeared Michigan would win with ease. Tennessee's defense opened up, and the Wolverines took advantage, hitting 7-of-9 three-pointers in the first half; their 45 first-half points were the most ceded by the Volunteers all season. Uncharacteristically, the only significant category Michigan didn't win in the first half was turnovers; that'd turn out to be an omen, and not a good one.

I'll assume you watched the game, and therefore spare you the gory details of Tennessee's second-half run that, based on my Twitter feed, drove everyone not obligated to write a game recap to drink heavily. (Don't worry, I'll join you degenerates soon.) The turnovers kept coming. Nik Stauskas, who'd score 14 points on 13 shots, went cold from the outside. Jordan McRae, who finished with a game-high 24 points, kept finding his way to the basket.

A blown out of bounds call that somehow held upon review, a turnover after Robinson couldn't handle a lob to halfcourt, and another inbounds turnover when LeVert caught the ball with a foot on the line; that sequence set up the Vols, once down 15 in the second half, with the ball down just one point with nine seconds on the clock.

That's when Morgan, who led Michigan with 15 points and seven rebounds, made a play reminiscent of last year's Syracuse game. Tennessee's plan was simple: post up Stokes. That plan backfired when Morgan anticipated Stokes's drive, beat him to the spot, and planted his feet as Stokes lowered his shoulder into Morgan's chest. In the most Jordan Morgan play of them all, Michigan's lone senior drew a charge, refusing to allow his career to end on this night.

Michigan's early shooting bonanza—helped mightily by the freshman duo of Derrick Walton and Zak Irvin, who combined to hit 5-of-5 triples—allowed them to survive a late storm that they helped create with sloppy play. It wasn't pretty. A lot of it wasn't fun. But they survived.

On the backs of two of the more scrutinized players to come through this program—Morgan, too soft/untalented/unskilled to center a real contender; Robinson, too soft/one-dimensional/reliant on his athleticism to live up to his five-star billing—Michigan made the Elite Eight for the second consecutive season. In the regional final, whether they play Louisville or Kentucky, they'll face a mismatch or two; they might just create a couple themselves, too.

Comments

WolverineHistorian

March 28th, 2014 at 10:42 PM ^

3 different times, Walton did a lap around the basket and then tossed the ball to a Tennessee player.  He needs to stop doing that.  But otherwise, good job for the freshmen. 

Morgan should have had two more dunks but lost the handle both times.  The later one helped the Vols run to close in on us. 

We survived.  That's what's most important.  But it's clear that inbounding the ball is still going to give me nightmares. 

gwkrlghl

March 28th, 2014 at 11:11 PM ^

We had a zillion weird turnovers (which is unfortunately becoming a bit normal in the tourney) and one awful video review by the refs. We probably dropped at like 3-4 easy dunks. Just holding onto the ball probably has us winning by 10ish.

rowtheblue

March 28th, 2014 at 11:28 PM ^

Not the best looking win, but I'm more than happy! One more win and I'll be Dallas bound next weekend. Can't wait to go (and be broke because of it).

 

Sidenote: Props to CBS for making sure to capture more McGary/Dakich moments.

B-Nut-GoBlue

March 29th, 2014 at 12:34 AM ^

Does Beilein work on different out of bounds plays, possibly with a different in-bounder (not Caris, unless he's worked his kinks out)?  Spike does okay, his smaller stature usually not a problem, but his "passing" wasn't great tonight.  Granted, it's tough to doback to back to back to back to back in-bounds plays without being able to move, for any team.  I guess I assume Beilein strives for perfection, like he should, and may tweak some things to an area that can hurt this team at critical moments.

This isn't the only thing I took away from the game.  I thought 38 minutes was dominated by Michigan.

TheNema

March 29th, 2014 at 12:37 AM ^

Remember when someone asked why we have so much trouble inbounding this week and the consensus was "Oh that happens to everybody"?

Yeah, the MGoBoard might want to rethink that answer. Really hope we learned our lesson and throw it deep.

Michigan4Life

March 29th, 2014 at 10:24 AM ^

against Kentucky with 71-70 score with 50% chance.  It's truly a toss up game where both team can win either way.  If UK wins, they win with their rebounding and scoring inside. If Michigan wins, it's because of their offense.  Michigan won't win games with their defense since it's still pretty bad.

Kentucky does not force turnovers which is a good thing. Hopefully, Michigan can snap out of the TO funk from last night's game in which I'm confident they will.  Jordan Morgan will draw Julius Randle and it should be a good battle down low.

I don't think Willie Cauley-Stein is playing tomorrow which could be a big break for Michigan.  They'll have to play Dakari Johnson more, but it'd be a tall assignment for either Randle or Johnson to guard GRIII out at the perimeter.  GRIII has been playing real well as of late and is showing a lot of confidence.  If GRIII draws Johnson, I expect him to be aggressive like he did against Maymon who was completely helpless all by himself.

stephenrjking

March 29th, 2014 at 12:51 AM ^

Inbounding has been a serious problem since the B1G tournament, and with that out there we can assume teams will look to exploit this. With that in mind, I'm kind of glad we're not facing Louisville's ball denial press. Imagine facing 10-15 of those inbounds Sunday after conventional buckets.

So the end of the game was as ugly as it could possibly be... But it's a win and that's all that matters. You think UConn wants to give back their Kemba Walker title just because the championship game was uglier than sludge? No.

We survived. Morgan made one huge play (massive assist to Levert, whose steal made the legitimacy of the foul academic) and it was enough. Michigan moves on. What an incredible year, what an incredible run. From 1994 to 2012 the elite eight was something we watched good teams play on TV while we focused on hockey. Now it is something Michigan belongs in as much as any program in the nation.

Awesome.

mgoblue98

March 29th, 2014 at 1:05 AM ^

So most of my wife's side of the family is from Kentucky and went to school there.  This should be interesting.  I guess win or lose, I'm still not from Kentucky.

Kentucky shoots 32.9% from 3 and around 45% from 2.  They are almost identical to Texas and Tennessee in those categories.  They have a very tall line up.  The Harrisons are both 6'-6", Young is 6'-6", Poythress is 6'-8", Randle is 6'-9" and Johnson is 7'-0".  It looks like Cauley-Stein (7'-0") might be done.  They aren't very deep.

Jacoby

March 29th, 2014 at 1:28 AM ^

Odd moment for me. This evening I went to the Pelicans vs. Jazz game and sat right next to the Jazz bench and Trey Burke. Game took place during the Michigan/Tennessee game. I felt like calling out the score to him, but I figured that would be weird. Here are photos/video.

PS: what the F is wrong with this god damn website. I try to post photos of Trey Burke from up-close this evening and this anti-old person computer input thingy demands a level of computer sophistication that only millennials have. Well F errybody here. I've got some good Trey Burke photos from tonight's game from front F'ing row sitting right next to the Jazz and I can't post them because the image input thing is speaking in Latin and there appears to be no way to just attach an image like the rest of the world wide web sites. F all y'all. I'm taking my cool Trey Burke photos and going home.

/GOML

west2

March 29th, 2014 at 9:51 AM ^

and it might be true about the website discouraging older folks. Whats amusing is that the young, hip and relevant quickly become the opposite. Middle age begins at 35 physiologically. Not far off for some of website writers.

maize-blue

March 29th, 2014 at 7:52 AM ^

This team needs to play a full hard 40 minutes. Over the last three games and even two in the BIG tounament they have had a tendency to allow teams back into the game. It may be hard to keep that aggresiveness for a full length of a game but that should have been a blowout last night.

west2

March 29th, 2014 at 9:26 AM ^

seemed to go wrong, uncharacteristic turnovers, scoring went cold, bad calls. Ironically, the game turned on an offensive charge that easily could have been called the other way. Everything seemed to go against M but they still won the game. One comment though did it seem like the announcers talked on and on about Tennessee with very little about Michigan, seemed like we were watching the game with a bunch of volunteer fans, it was annoying I thought.

Austinwolverine

March 29th, 2014 at 10:25 AM ^

Even though some Volunteers disputed the charge call and the experts also said it was 50-50, if the refs go no call there, Levert had a game saving steal that had so much spin that it stayed in bounds and would've led to Levert at the line. The correctness of the call was a non-issue to me since we had a clean steal.

oldhackman

March 29th, 2014 at 2:15 PM ^

Or else Caris would have outrun everyone down the sideline to run out most or all of the six seconds left.  Plus no mention that the refs somehow botched the out-of-bounds call even after a review that even made their last possession possible.

But then again I remember when we whipped them by 30 in 2011 and they had 16 free throw attempts to our one attempt, Vol fans thought they got hosed by the refs too.