INDIANAPOLIS – All season Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said his team was built for this, given what had happened for 38 games.
But it wasn’t built for Saturday night and surely not for Michigan, a well-built team that all but made Arizona looking like the Arizona team that set a school record for wins at 36.
Sometimes you may be good, but you find out there is someone better. Michigan clearly was better.
It was over early and a complete beat down. Michigan won 91-73 and it didn’t even seem that close here at Lucas Oil Stadium in front of 72,111 fans.
“Obviously, they have the kryptonite right now,” Lloyd said. “So that’s going to be a fun thing for me to try to figure out this offseason.
“They just did a great job. And their size really impacted the game.”
Like no other team did all season.
Michigan did to Arizona what it done to so many teams this year, beating them by nearly 20 or more, making it look easy.
Reminded me a bit of Arizona’s Elite Eight loss to Utah in 1998 when Arizona didn’t show up and got blitzed.
Saturday, Arizona showed up – and still got blitzed.
It had no answer for former UCLA center Aday Mara, who looked more than Dikembe Mutombo than a former UCLA player under Mick Cronin.
Arizona was just too short for Michigan’s tall task.
And everything that had worked for Arizona all season had no effect on the Wolverines.
Heck, even Arizona’s all-season formula of: if one or two players didn’t play well, another one or two shined.
That wasn’t the case Saturday.
Brayden Burries had three air balls and looked out of sorts all night, reminiscent of his first five games of the season. He went 4 for 16 from the floor, including 2-10 from beyond the 3-point line.
Jaden Bradley, perhaps Arizona’s most consistent and dependable player all season, got in foul trouble early and then picked up his third and then fourth two minutes into the second half.
Koa Peat, UA’s sensational freshman, had no impact near the basket. Going 6 for 18.
Ivan Kharchenkov went 2 for 8.
Yada, yada, yada.
Nothing worked.
N-O-T-H-I-N-G.
Dusty May said he had a plan, much like he did vs. Tommy Lloyd’s old team Gonzaga, a team the Wolverines beat by 40 earlier this season.
He said he felt Arizona was a “souped up version” of the Bulldogs, so why not just ramp it up a bit. If Arizona was going to be a team that scored many of its points within 15 feet of the basket, why not cut all that off?
“Because of our size, length, it’s going to be tough to score enough points 15 feet and in,” May said. “If we’re making some shots and we’re in a decent rhythm offensively … I think that’s what happened tonight. I do think we matched up well with Arizona better than we have some other teams this year.”
Victory doesn’t come any easier to explain. And, well, neither does defeat.
Adversity hadn’t happened all season, well, at least not this hard.
And so, the pregame prize fight that was scheduled – at least by the media – never materialized. Arizona was down 10-1 in the first three minutes and was “back on its heels” all game.
“They were just impressive,” said Lloyd. “They were impressive how they came out and executed their game plan. We got down a little bit, and we’ve been down a few times this year, but not like that.
“We just probably got a little panicky and weren’t able to settle back in.”
Lloyd said Michigan “built for it” and was “surgical at a point and that’s hard to do.”
That had been Arizona’s signature all season.
Now the season – of fun and run – is over. The road ended unlike it did in 1997 when it went on a magic run to the title.
“It will probably take a little time (to reflect),” Lloyd said. “I knew we could do this this year. And I thought we had a chance to win this four-team tournament (here in Indianapolis). But obviously Michigan had other thoughts.”
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