The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/970722
20 THE WOLVERINE MAY 2018 It was ironic, then, when he hit the winning shot from 30 feet with a hand in his face as time expired to give the Wolverines a 64-63 win. Houston's Devin Davis missed two free throws with 3.9 seconds remaining and the Cougars up two, during which Houston guard Rob Gray told Poole he was "about to go home to Milwaukee." Instead, Poole took a pass from Abdur-Rahkman and nailed his three from the right sideline to send the Wolverines to the West Regional in Los Angeles. "You've been a pain in the ass all year," Beilein quipped in the postgame locker room after giving Poole plenty of love. "You're just lucky I've got that ice in my veins," Poole retorted. A day later in Detroit, while the Wolverines readied for the West Coast, the Spartans fell to No. 11 seed Syracuse in a round of 32 game, leaving U-M to carry the flag for the state of Michigan, and only Michigan and Purdue left to represent the conference. WEST REGIONAL: LOS ANGELES The Wolverines escaped Wichita, but they needed a last-second prayer to do it. Yet it was encouraging in the sense that they were in the Sweet 16 despite not having played their best ball. How good could this team be, many surmised, if they got their offense going to match a defense that ranked among the best in the country? No. 7 seed Texas A&M, an upset winner over No. 2 seed North Carolina in the second round, was about to find out. U-M opened as only a 2.5-point favorite against a big and talented Aggies squad, but the Wolverines finally found their "A" game in L.A. They dominated from start to finish with help from a partisan crowd that made it feel like a Saturday home game against a rival. Texas A&M did its chirping before the game, but the Aggies couldn't back it up. "Unstoppable," freshman point guard T.J. Starks said of himself in the pregame. M i c h i g a n s o p h o m o re Z a v i e r Simpson proved he wasn't, holding him to five points and pressuring him into five turnovers, cutting the head off the snake of the offense, a game after holding Houston's Gray to 8-of-22 shooting. "Unguardable" was the word big man Tyler Davis used for him and his big (and slow … SEC speed doesn't translate to the hardwood, apparently) teammates, and while he scored his 24 points, many of them were conceded. "We were up so much, we knew they weren't going to beat us with twos," Beilein explained. They were up big because they were on fire from long range. Michigan led by as many as 29 in the first half alone before settling for a 52-28 halftime lead, making 10 of 16 triples in the first 20 minutes on the way to a 14-of-24 effort for the game. Eight different Wolverines made at least one three-pointer, capped by walk-on and former manager C.J. Baird's deep trey from the top of the key, in a record-setting performance. Michigan's 99 points marked the sixth most in the school's NCAA Tournament history and the most since scoring 102 against East Tennessee State in the second round on March 22, 1992. The 61.9 overall shooting percentage ranked second in the program's NCAA Tournament annals. The only better shooting performance by the Wolverines in the NCAA Tournament came on March 19, 1988, when U-M shot 64.7 percent against Florida in the second round. Michigan's 14 three-point field goals tied for the second most by a Wolverine team in NCAA Tournament history, and its 58.3 percent from three-point range was Sophomore Zavier Simpson led the defensive charge for Michigan, limiting opposing point guards to a combined 11-of-37 shooting performance and just four assists with 11 turnovers in three straight NCAA Tournament games against Houston, Texas A&M and Florida State. PHOTO BY SAMUEL MOUSIGIAN