The Bridesmaid Finally Became the Bride
I’ve mentioned this story multiple times, but it bears repeating. After they won their Sweet 16 matchup, Yaxel was interviewed and he mentioned how he believed that his Michigan squad could go down as the best ever. Jalen Rose, a Michigan legend himself, simply responded with “You wanna have that conversation? Go cut down the nets”. Well, they listened and followed through.
This Michigan team has built a super strong case as the best Michigan team in NCAA men’s basketball history. They set the all-time single season wins record for the school with 37. The previous record was 33. They’re just the 11th team in NCAA men’s basketball history to finish with 37+ wins.
This Michigan team scored the most points, blocked the most shots and grabbed more rebounds than any other Michigan team. That goes with their historic blowout victories in the Elite 8 and Final 4. In my opinion, Glen Rice’s 89 squad and the Fab Five teams have been dethroned. This is the best Michigan team ever.
In the National Championship game, they showed off the defense that helped them dominate virtually every game they played when their elite offense couldn’t do it for them. Michigan became just the 9th team in all of NCAA history to rack up 6 steals and 6 blocks in the Title game. They join 2023 UConn, 2006 Florida and both 97 and 98 Kentucky among others.
Everyone will talk about the whistle being in Michigan’s favour and UConn certainly got the bad end of it, becoming just the 36th team to rack up 22+ fouls in the National Championship game. However, hyper focussing on that is unfair to Michigan. UConn missed all those 3s for a reason. Tarris Reed, who had dominated this tournament, had easily his worst game for a reason. The Wolverines won despite their own shooting woes for a reason.
They were just that damn good.
CBB