Digital Sports Desk

Online Destination for the Best in Boston Sports

Arizona

Michigan Mauls Arizona; Next is UConn

by

INDIANAPOLIS — Michigan’s wait for a competitive NCAA Tournament game extends to the national championship game Monday after the Wolverines mauled Arizona, 90-73 on Saturday night.

Michigan was all gas, no brake in improving to 36-3 and earning a spot in the title game with a fifth consecutive blowout in the 2026 NCAA Tournament.

Embed from Getty Images

Aday Mara scored 26 points, Trey McKenney had 16 and generations of Wolverines celebrated with Chris Webber, Jalen Rose and the Fab Five courtisde at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Michigan had 26 points off turnovers and made 12 of 27 3-pointers.

The barrage had Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd shaking his head long before Elliot Cadeau splashed his second 3 and gave the Wolverines a 27-point lead with 12:20 left in the game.

There was little life remaining in the Wildcats, who were atypically frustrated for most of their third loss of the season (36-3).

With Michigan All-American Yaxel Lendeborg in and out of the game — first due to foul trouble, later to have his rolled ankle checked and taped to return — the Wolverines flexed their title-worthy depth. Cadeau missed 12 of his 14 shot attempts in the first half, but McKenney could scarcely miss and Arizona had no way to slow down 7-foot-3 center Mara.

McKenney made three 3s in less then five minutes during a second-half sprint that helped Michigan kick its way to a 77-47 lead with 10:31 on the clock.

Mara was more of a constant.

He made 11 of 16 field goals, three of them emphatic and emotional dunks. On defense he slapped away shots, changed countless more and harassed Arizona freshman Koa Peat into a night to erase from his memory.

Peat took a team-high 18 shots (made six) and had only 11 points with 10 minutes left in the game. He eventually led Arizona with 16 points and 11 rebounds.

Arizona had a couple of roundhouse punches left as the deficit hovered around 30 points, but a true game never materialized.

Peat and Burries cashed 3s and Big 12 Player of the Year Jaden Bradley, limited to 25 minutes due to foul trouble, outsprinted the Wolverines for a layup that narrowed the gap to 81-60. The Wildcats forced a stop and then Cadeu’s fourth foul sent Bradley to the line for one-and-one. He came away with two and whittled the margin to 19.

Embed from Getty Images

Burries was 2 of 10 from 3-point range. He finished with 13 points, as did Bradley.

It was still a 19-point game when Mara lowered his right shoulder and tugged Tobe Awaka with him for a five-footer on the baseline that gave him a career-high 25 points and added the free throw to balloon Michigan’s lead to 86-64 with 5:19 left.

Michigan improved to 8-1 in the Final Four and meets UConn (34-5) on Monday. The Huskies held off a late Illinois rally to improve to 13-1 all-time in the Final Four. Michigan is 1-6 and UConn is 6-0 all-time in the national title game.

–By Field Level Media

NCAA Final Four: Michigan vs. Arizona

by

INDIANAPOLIS — On the weekend the Fab Five is reunited and Michigan celebrates the anniversary of its only men’s basketball national title in 1989, Dusty May can’t help but feel momentum moving the Wolverines closer to tipoff in the Final Four.

The former Indiana University manager for Bob Knight has Michigan (35-3) hitting a peak at the right time with only Arizona (36-2) between the Wolverines and their eighth national championship game appearance.

Embed from Getty Images

“It’s really cool just to be back here in a full-circle moment,” May said Friday, roughly 36 hours before Michigan takes the court at Lucas Oil Stadium.

The Wolverines waltzed through the NCAA Tournament Midwest Region in Chicago, taking the regional final from Tennessee in a landslide, 95-62. Michigan’s trail of victims all allowed 90-plus points, 25-plus field goals, 19-plus assists and 10-plus 3-pointers with Big Ten Player of the Year Yaxel Lendeborg (21.0 points per game) leading six Wolverines averaging double figures during the NCAA Tournament.

“He’s obviously an elite talent,” Lloyd said of Lendeborg. “You put the skill with those physical tools, and looks like to me he’s got that alpha dog in him. Dusty has done an incredible job just putting him in positions to utilize all his skills. There’s probably not one way to guard him. … I’m sure that guy, that’s going to be a household name in basketball for a long time.”

Lloyd said Friday he plans to be a household name in Tucson for a long time. He signed a contract extension through 2031 in the wake of interest from another college basketball powerhouse — this time North Carolina, last year Villanova — with a coaching vacancy.

Arizona set a single-season program record with 36 wins. The Wildcats won the Big 12 and, like Big Ten regular-season champ Michigan, haven’t had to sweat much in the NCAA Tournament with an average margin of victory of 20.5. This is the first matchup since the NCAA Tournament became a 64-team field in 1985 in which Final Four opponents won four prior games by at least 10 points.

“I feel like we’ve been tested,” Arizona senior point guard Jaden Bradley said. “Big 12 play, Big 12 tournament. I think it’s going to go down to the wire. It’s definitely going to be a full 40 (minutes).”

Illinois, Arizona and Michigan have been in the top six in offensive efficiency rating all season.

The Wildcats are making their fifth Final Four appearance — their first since 2001 — and are back near the site of their 1997 national title celebration at the RCA Dome.

Freshman forward Koa Peat was named West Region Most Outstanding Player, averaging 20.5 points, 5.0 rebounds 2.5 assists in wins over Arkansas and Purdue last week. In a Final Four dominated by transfers and international talent searches, Peat is an anomaly Lloyd applauds.

“Koa is special,” Lloyd said. “And I know you guys hear it, but you got to hear it again. Four state championships at the same high school. Didn’t go to a prep school. Four gold medals with USA Basketball. No one in FIBA history has ever done that. And helped lead Arizona to a Final Four.”

Classmate Brayden Burries scored 23 points against Arkansas in the Sweet 16, the second-most points scored by an Arizona freshman in an NCAA Tournament game. The pair combined for 1,105 points this season.

Embed from Getty Images

The player most responsible for carrying the Arizona flag on the roster is Bradley, who was named Big 12 Player of the Year. He was a third-team All-American and a semifinalist for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year award.

Bradley’s matchup with Michigan’s backcourt brings intrigue in a game where most of the Xs and Os are fixed on big men. He’ll likely get plenty of time against Michigan point guard Elliot Cadeau, who has three consecutive games with seven-plus assists and overcame an allergic reaction and late departure from Ann Arbor to practice Friday.

But Arizona takes pride in its team defense.

“I think their physicality stands out and the way that they play and they sustain physicality for 40 minutes,” Michigan freshman guard Trey McKenney said of Arizona.

The Wildcats are not the typical college offense, a point made by Michigan’s 7-foot-4 center Aday Mara this week.

They typically are aiming to shoot a higher volume of free throws, not 3-pointers. The Wildcats have attempted only 53 total 3-pointers in four NCAA Tournament games and shot 43.4%; Arizona made an average of 19.7 free throws per game this season. Michigan made 27 free throws in the Midwest Region final win.

Arizona’s defense gave Big 12 foes fits all season with 7-foot-2 Motiejus Krivas roaming between the blocks. But Lloyd views Lendeborg as a unicorn. Not because of just his scoring, but because of his unselfish play.

“It took him a while,” May said of Lendeborg reaching his current comfort zone. “And I think our guys have constantly reminded him. He’s so unselfish. He’s so — I don’t know how to say it. He wants to be one of the guys. They’ve encouraged him to be more aggressive, to shoot more, to hunt some more individual accolades all year, and he simply refused because he didn’t care about any of those things.

“It’s allowed us to have a real selfless group, and it’s improved our environment because he’s been so unselfish but he still has no idea how good he is.”

A grad student who had 150 career games under his belt before joining the Wolverines, Lendeborg spent two seasons at Arizona Western College and two at UAB. He’s also a unique talent because of range — 10 3-pointers in the past three games — and length (7-foot-4 wingspan).

If the Wildcats control the lane and force Michigan to launch from deep, they expect positive results. Opponents are shooting 27.9% from 3-point range against Arizona in the NCAA Tournament.

-Field Level Media

Lloyd Wins USBWA Coaching Award

by

INDIANAPOLIS – (Staff Report from Official USBWA News release) – Arizona first-year head coach Tommy Lloyd led the Wildcats to the Pac-12 Conference championship and a top seed in the NCAA Tournament. For his smashing debut guiding Arizona to 33 wins and into the Sweet 16, Lloyd has been named the winner of the 2021-22 Henry Iba Award, given annually by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association to its national coach of the year.

Lloyd, who will formally receive the award at the upcoming USBWA College Basketball Awards Banquet in St. Louis on April 11 hosted by the Missouri Athletic Club, is the first Arizona coach to earn the honor and the first from the Pac-12 since Tony Bennett at Washington State in 2007. He’s only the fifth Pac-12 coach to earn the Henry Iba Award, joining UCLA legend John Wooden (a six-time winner in 1964, ’67, ’70, ’71, ’72, ’73), Pete Newell (California, 1960) and Ralph Miller (Oregon State, 1981).

Arizona (33-4) ascended to several success marks during Lloyd’s first season in Tucson. The Wildcats finished the season 17-0 at home, the 13th time they have finished a season undefeated in the 49-year history of the McKale Center. Arizona’s 19-game home win streak is the longest active streak in the Pac-12 and the third-longest in Division I heading into next season. The ‘Cats won nine road games for the first time since 2016-17 and were 7-0 in neutral site games.

Lloyd is the ninth first-time head coach in NCAA history to win 30 games in year one and joined UCLA’s Gary Cunningham (1977-78) as the only first-time head coaches in the Pac-12 to win 25 of their first 27 games. Lloyd is alone as the only Pac-12 coach to start 15-1 or better in conference play. Arizona’s 18-2 Pac-12 record that won the conference by a three-game margin over runner-up UCLA is also the best-ever for a first-year coach in conference.

Lloyd, 46, joins Bill Guthridge (North Carolina in 1998) and Bill Hodges (Indiana State in 1979) as the only head coaches to earn a No. 1 seed in their first season as head coach. The 33 wins – Arizona fell to Houston in last weekend’s Sweet 16 – are tied for third-most in program history and left Lloyd one shy of tying Guthridge for the most by a first-time head coach in NCAA history.

The style of play Lloyd brought to Arizona also produced record marks in various statistical categories. UA led the nation in total assists (714), assists per game (19.8) and total rebounds (1,496). The ‘Cats scored 80 or more points 28 times and were undefeated in those games. School records for assists (714) and blocked shots (207) fell. In its final win against TCU in the NCAA’s second round, Arizona scored 52 points in the paint, the 25th game this year for it to score 40-plus paint points – the most by any Pac-12 team in the last 15 seasons.

Arizona produced a second-team USBWA All-America selection in sophomore guard Bennedict Mathurin, also the Pac-12 Player of the Year. The conference’s John R. Wooden Coach of the Year, Lloyd also coached the Pac-12’s Defensive Player of the Year (center Christian Koloko), Most Improved Player of the Year (Koloko) and Sixth Man of the Year (Pelle Larsson). Koloko, Mathurin and forward Azuolas Tubelis earned First-Team All-Pac-12 honors and Kokolo and guard Dalen Terry were on the All-Defensive Team.

Also of note is in his first semester as head coach last fall, Arizona’s men’s team posted a team GPA of 3.04, the best team GPA for a semester in the history of the program with 11 players having a 3.0 or better.

Lloyd was an assistant coach at Gonzaga for 20 seasons before coming to Arizona. At Gonzaga he helped to develop 19 All-Americans and 15 conference players of the year and contributed to five straight 30-win seasons and two appearances in the national championship game.

The Henry Iba Award is named in honor of the legendary coaching great at Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State) who won two NCAA championships and two gold medals and one silver as coach of the U S. Olympic teams. Iba held the dual position of basketball coach and athletic director until he retired in 1970. He was elected to the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame, the Oklahoma Hall of Fame, the Missouri Hall of Fame, the Helms Foundation All-Time Hall of Fame for basketball, and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame at Springfield, Mass. Henry Iba passed away in 1993 in Stillwater, Okla.

The U.S. Basketball Writers Association was formed in 1956 at the urging of then-NCAA Executive Director Walter Byers. With some 900 members worldwide, it is one of the most influential organizations in college basketball. It has selected an All-America team since the 1956-57 season. For more information on the USBWA and its award programs, contact executive director Malcolm Moran at 814-574-1485. For additional info about covering the awards banquet, contact Jim Wilson with the MAC (314-539-4488).

ALL-TIME USBWA NATIONAL COACHES OF THE YEAR
1958-59    Eddie Hickey, Marquette (Independent)
1959-60    Pete Newell, California (AAWU)
1960-61    Fred Taylor, Ohio State (Big Ten)
1961-62    Fred Taylor, Ohio State (Big Ten)
1962-63    Ed Jucker, Cincinnati (Missouri Valley)
1963-64    John Wooden, UCLA (AAWU)
1964-65    Butch Van Breda Kolff, Princeton (Ivy League)
1965-66    Adolph Rupp, Kentucky (SEC)
1966-67    John Wooden, UCLA (AAWU)
1967-68    Guy Lewis, Houston (Independent)
1968-69    Maury John, Drake (Missouri Valley)
1969-70    John Wooden, UCLA (Pac-8)
1970-71    John Wooden, UCLA (Pac-8)
1971-72    John Wooden, UCLA (Pac-8)
1972-73    John Wooden, UCLA (Pac-8)
1973-74    Norm Sloan, N.C. State (ACC)
1974-75    Bob Knight, Indiana (Big Ten)
1975-76    Johnny Orr, Michigan (Big Ten)
1976-77    Eddie Sutton, Arkansas (Southwest)
1977-78    Ray Meyer, DePaul (Independent)
1978-79    Dean Smith, North Carolina (ACC)
1979-80    Ray Meyer, DePaul (Independent)
1980-81    Ralph Miller, Oregon State (Pac-10)
1981-82    John Thompson, Georgetown (Big East)
1982-83    Lou Carnesecca, St. John’s (Big East)
1983-84    Gene Keady, Purdue (Big Ten)
1984-85    Lou Carnesecca, St. John’s (Big East)
1985-86    Dick Versace, Bradley (Missouri Valley)
1986-87    John Chaney, Temple (Atlantic 10)
1987-88    John Chaney, Temple (Atlantic 10)
1988-89    Bob Knight, Indiana (Big Ten)
1989-90    Roy Williams, Kansas (Big 8)
1990-91    Randy Ayers, Ohio State (Big Ten)
1991-92    Perry Clark, Tulane (Metro)
1992-93    Eddie Fogler, Vanderbilt (SEC)
1993-94    Charlie Spoonhour, Saint Louis (Great Midwest)
1994-95    Kelvin Sampson, Oklahoma (Big 8)
1995-96    Gene Keady, Purdue (Big Ten)
1996-97    Clem Haskins, Minnesota (Big Ten)
1997-98    Tom Izzo, Michigan State (Big Ten)
1998-99    Cliff Ellis, Auburn (SEC)
1999-00    Larry Eustacy, Iowa State (Big 12)
2000-01    Al Skinner, Boston College (Big East)
2001-02    Ben Howland, Pittsburgh (Big East)
2002-03    Tubby Smith, Kentucky (SEC)
2003-04    Phil Martelli, St. Joseph’s (Atlantic 10)
2004-05    Bruce Weber, Illinois (Big Ten)
2005-06    Roy Williams, North Carolina (ACC)
2006-07    Tony Bennett, Washington State (Pac-10)
2007-08    Keno Davis, Drake (Missouri Valley)
2008-09    Bill Self, Kansas (Big 12)
2009-10    Jim Boeheim, Syracuse (Big East)
2010-11    Mike Brey, Notre Dame (Big East)
2011-12    Frank Haith, Missouri (Big 12)
2012-13    Jim Larrañaga, Miami, Fla. (ACC)
2013-14    Gregg Marshall, Wichita State (Missouri Valley)
2014-15    Tony Bennett, Virginia (ACC)
2015-16    Chris Mack, Xavier (Big East)
2016-17    Mark Few, Gonzaga (West Coast)
2017-18    Tony Bennett, Virginia (ACC)
2018-19    Rick Barnes, Tennessee (SEC)
2019-20    Anthony Grant, Dayton (Atlantic 10)
2020-21    Juwan Howard, Michigan (Big Ten)
2021-22    Tommy Lloyd, Arizona (Pac-12)