Michigan Rolls Tide | Advances to Elite Eight

Playing Alabama is a dangerous proposition. An up-tempo team that’s never met a three-point shot it didn’t like, when the Tide gets rolling, things can get out of hand pretty quickly. Michigan may have come into Friday’s Sweet Sixteen match-up as the Midwest region’s top seed and favorite, but the Wolverines knew they were in for a fight.

Alabama wasted little time showing why.

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On the strength of three early three-pointers, the Crimson Tide jumped out to a quick 11-2 lead. Michigan responded with a 9-0 run of its own to knot the score at 11. From there, the teams settled into a frenetic, back-and-forth half of basketball – one that resulted in a combined 96 points.

Michigan played well, connecting on 50% of its first half field goal attempts, but fell into the trap of trying to run with Alabama. Trying to match the Tide three-pointer for three-pointer rather than playing to its strengths. The Wolverines held their own against the high-flying Tide, but they weren’t playing their game.

“We tried to pretty much get into an offensive match with those guys (in the first half),” Michigan’s Yaxel Lendeborg said after the game. “We’re not that kind of team. They’re a much better offensive team than we are. But once we started slowing the game down, being a lot more physical, and trying to dominate the paint, we started finding more success.”

“We were down on ourselves,” Michigan head coach Dusty May said of the first half, “but we regrouped, and our guys had a different level of focus and intensity in the second half.”

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That they did. And it was most evident on the defensive end of the floor.

Michigan came out of the locker room flying around defensively, aggressively contesting every Alabama three-point attempt – even blocking a handful of threes, something you don’t often see. After shooting 40% from the floor and 38% from beyond the arc in the first half, the Wolverines held the Tide just 33% and 21% respectively in the…

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Publish date : 2026-03-29 13:00:00

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