Michigan basketball vs Arizona early look: Game of the decade potential

Once you reach the Final Four every game is massive.

But Michigan basketball vs. Arizona has the potential to be an all-timer.

When Midwest 1-seed Michigan and West 1-seed Arizona meet in the late national semifinal at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on Saturday, April 4 (8:49 p.m., TBS), it will be a meeting between the No. 3 and No. 4 teams on analytics site KenPom.com.

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Not Nos. 3 and 4 this season – Nos. 3 and 4 over the entire 27-season run of the site, dating back to 1999. The only higher-rated teams: 1999 Duke, at 43.01, and 2025 Duke, which came in at 39.29 before falling to UConn on Sunday night. The Blue Devils barely edged Arizona (38.76) and U-M (39.02).

It’s why when Michigan coach Dusty May looks ahead, he sees a heavyweight bout approaching.

Michigan guard Elliot Cadeau (3) and forward Yaxel Lendeborg (23) watch a play against Tennessee during the first half of NCAA Tournament Elite 8 round at United Center in Chicago on Sunday, March 29, 2026.

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“I was just watching them, and they do a number of things to terrify you,” May told Fox’s Colin Cowherd. “Like us, they have so many weapons. We could start rattling off Koa Peat and [Brayden] Burries, and Jaden Bradley and we haven’t even mentioned [Motiejus] Krivas yet or [Ivan] Kharchenkov, we haven’t even mentioned these guys that are going to play in the NBA, and that’s very similar to the way opposing coaches talk about our team.

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“The way I look at it, there’s stylistically some differences, but we’re almost like mirror images of each other.”

Burries (No. 14), Krivas (No. 36) Bradley (No. 46) and Peat (No. 51) give the Wildcats four players in the top 51 spots in Evan Miya’s ratings system. But the Wolverines have one up on the Wildcats; they’re the only team with four players in the top 50: Yaxel Lendeborg (No. 2), Aday Mara (No. 19), Morez Johnson Jr. (No. 21) and Elliot Cadeau (No….

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Publish date : 2026-04-01 09:04:00

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