Michigan Prepares for Louisville on Sunday

The giant-killing MI team, involved in a plane crash 11 days ago, came from behind to upset the second-seeded Cardinals 73-69 in Indianapolis on Sunday. In between, No. 4 Purdue defeated No. 5 Iowa State.

Second-seeded Mississippi State used a 14-0 run in the middle of the third quarter to turn a tight game into a 61-43 advantage. Betting odds are courtesy of KenPom. The joyous celebration will continue for at least a couple days as MI won’t be in action again until either Thursday or Friday against the victor of the Oregon-Rhode Island game later tonight.

“When Q has a bad game, I always make sure to talk to him”, Mitchell said.

Louisville finishes the season at 25-9. The Wolverines came in as one of the hottest teams in the country and rode a Big Ten tournament championship to a seven seed. Such an event could have broken a team, but not MI. He worked day after day with strength and conditioning coach Jon Sanderson, gaining muscle and strength so that he would be able to better harness and display the talent – talent that everyone at MI was aware of but understood needed to be coaxed out.

Louisville likes to run a press defense, and that could work in Michigan’s favor. Against Louisville, Walton went just 3-for-13 from the field and 2-for-7 from beyond the arc, although he hit a huge step-back 3-pointer with 5:55 left, as part of the MI run that put it in control of the game. “Wisconsin is one of the toughest teams in the country, period”. MI shot so well this year that Rick Pitino compared them to the Golden State Warriors, in fact.

All of the above led to lower seedings for the NCAA Tournament. The closest comparison during the Beilein era may be Deshawn Sims, from those early years. The Big Ten Tournament champs don’t foul much and take care of the ball, too, as evidenced by the four turnovers they had in a first-round win over Oklahoma State. “But our guys, we started a tradition of taking a shower, I guess, without going into the shower after good wins”. In the game, all of the Spartans freshmen standouts did just that, stand out.

Donovan Mitchell led the Cardinals with 19 points and Deng Adel added 16. His scoring average bloomed to 12.2 points per game, with occasional outbursts like the one he had today.

With the Spartans coming in as big underdogs, they definitely look like the better side.

MI was on top 67-61 and had the ball out of bounds, but Adel and Mitchell scored on consecutive turnovers as the Cards closed to within 67-65 with 56 seconds remaining.

The Big Ten had no dominant teams and rosters filled with youth. In their last 22 games, the Jayhawks are a poultry 6-16 ATS versus the conference.