The Michigan Wolverines were the last hope for the “Big 1 and Little 9” to save face in this NCAA Tournament. The conference rolled into the joint two weeks ago with all of the shine bringing 9 teams to the dance. Five of them were Top 4 seeds.
They initially jumped out of the ride with No.1’s Michigan and Illinois, No.2’s Iowa and Ohio State, No.4 Purdue, No.9 Wisconsin, No.10’s Maryland and Rutgers and No.11 Michigan State
Within the first 48 hours of the tournament starting three of them had been popped. No.11 Michigan State went down to No.11 UCLA. Then No.2 Ohio State got blindsided by No.15 Oral Roberts. No.4 Purdue saw a boy run up on and did nothing to avoid getting fired on and knocked out by No. 13 North Texas.
It went crazy after that. The lone survivor to make it to the Elite Eight was No.1 Michigan. Everybody and their baby’s momma and homeboy Deuce thought that they would at least hold the Big Ten down and be the one to make the Final Four.
They completely wet the bed on Tuesday night and literally panicked down the stretch against No.11 UCLA. First of all, they couldn’t buy a bucket from a blind man with counterfeit money. They couldn’t hit an elephant in the butt with a bass fiddle. They couldn’t hit water if they fell out of a boat all night not only from field goal range but especially from 3-point range.
They finished the night shooting 27 percent from behind the arc. That’s why it baffles me that they were down 2-points, 51-49 with 6 seconds left and guard Mike Smith rushed a 3-point attempt when they didn’t need it. He was 1-7 all night from behind the arc. As a team they shot 3-11 from behind the arc.
Then Michigan called a timeout to draw up another three point attempt when they were down the same 2-points. Juwan grew up a play with his 7-footer taking the freakin’ ball out of bounds with .5 seconds left!!! Why not throw the ball into the 7-footer to at least get a shot off or draw the foul. Either way you give your team a chance to win. There was zero percent chance the 7-footer was going to make that pass and anybody on the floor was going to make a 3-pointer when they hadn’t all night.
They never played with any composure and were simply out hustled, out coached and out played from start to finish. UCLA deserved to win that ball game as they now represent the PAC-12 in the Final Four.
Props to Michigan for at least holding the Big Ten down throughout the tournament but they were simply shook on that Elite Eight stage.
Now we’ve got two teams from the state of Texas, No.1 Baylor and No.2 Houston ready to bump heads and two cats from the West coast, No.1 Gonzaga and No.11 UCLA left standing.
It’s been an exciting tournament thus far but folks in the midwest expected more out of the Big Ten when they pulled up 9 deep. Stop me when I start lyin’!