The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/970722
22 THE WOLVERINE MAY 2018 were 2 of 13 from long range despite getting a number of good looks against a Cinderella No. 11 seed that had captured the nation's attention. Robinson missed his only two in the first 20 minutes, leaving one about half a foot short in transition with a nervous release. Abdur-Rahkman finished 0 of 5 from deep on his way to a 2-of-11 shooting game. "I know Muhammad really well, that ball looks good coming out of his hand when he's got good arch on it or he's doing some things. I just felt he might have been a little tired, and he's played a lot of minutes," Beilein said. So he turned to Matthews (17 points and five rebounds) again. After leading the motivation squad at halftime in telling his teammates 'we are not losing this game,' Matthews started to heat up and went a perfect 4 of 4 from the field after the break. But Wagner (10-of-16 shooting) would prove to be the difference. His triple with 6:56 remaining tied the game at 47-47, bringing U-M all the way back and firing up yet another impressive Maize and Blue contingent. Simpson, who had struggled most of the game, forced several turnovers in a row down the stretch, but Wagner 's three-point play capped a 12-0 run and extended the lead to 54-47 with five minutes left. His three-point bomb boosted the lead back to 59-51 with 2:59 left, and that was all U-M needed. "I've never been so exhausted in my life," Wagner said with a smile after making it to the postgame locker room. But that's where the smiles ended. Despite Michigan's success, the NCAA Tournament wasn't kind to U-M's shooters, and they went only 3 of 23 from three-point land — their worst performance of the year — in a 79-62 loss to Villanova in the national championship game. Wi l d c a t s s i x t h m a n D o n t e DiVincenzo scored 31 points, on 5-of-7 shooting from deep and a 10- of-15 effort overall, to pick up his struggling teammates. Losing wasn't the hardest part for many of the Wolverines. It was the way they lost, going down without playing their "A" game yet again. "We brought it with us," fifth-year senior point guard Jaaron Simmons insisted. "We just didn't show it on the court." A n d i t p a i n e d h i m , A b d u r- Rahkman and Robinson that they couldn't be the senior class that brought Beilein his first title. "We didn't play very well," Robinson said. "That hurts. You just want to get to this point because you feel like you can ride momentum and anything can happen in one game. "They're a really good team, clearly better than us tonight, both sides of the ball, but it hurts because we didn't play our best, and that's not something you can get back." Michigan made only 7 of 28 three-pointers in the Final Four win over Loyola, but got away with it by holding the Ramblers to a 1-of- 10 performance. The championship contest could have been a game had the Wolverines made triples the way they did the last third of the pre- Senior Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman (pictured) was named to the NCAA West Region All- Tournament team, along with teammates Moritz Wagner and Charles Matthews. PHOTO BY SAMUEL MOUSIGIAN