INDIANAPOLIS — On Saturday at approximately 8:49 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, Arizona and Michigan will meet on a hardwood floor, between two 10-foot baskets, for 40 minutes of basketball. That’s the simplest way to put it, and both teams prefer it that way.
“It’s just like every other game,” Michigan guard Eliot Cadeau said.
“We’re just treating it as another game,” Arizona guard Brayden Burries added.
To both sides, there’s nothing different about this matchup — but that doesn’t accurately describe Saturday’s Final Four national semifinal between the Wolverines and Wildcats. What Cadeau and Burries’ responses display, though, is how alike Arizona and Michigan really are.
Each team has the same mentality going into this one — to simplify it down to just a basketball game. They plan to play their own styles of basketball, but their similarities on the floor mirror the parallels in the answers that each of their starting guards gave.
From an Xs and Os standpoint, this matchup is about the best there possibly could be in college hoops. Both Arizona and Michigan have skill at every position on the floor, and use a blend of size and speed that has allowed each side to embark on a crash course to this very moment.
Arizona is 36-2 with the No. 2-rated defense on KenPom, while Michigan is 35-3 with the No. 1-rated defense on KenPom. The Wildcats possess the No. 4 scoring unit in the nation, while the Wolverines have the No. 5 offense.
It’s good on good — great on great, as Saturday’s clash between the two most overall efficient teams in the country pits two teams that encapsulate what success looks like in the modern era of college sports.
Efficiency everywhere, size in the frontcourt, playmaking in the backcourt. High-level 3-point shooting when needed, but not an overall dependence on the long-range jumper. These are qualities that don’t describe just one of these teams — they describe both of them to a tee.
“We feel like we’re built in a similar fashion to Arizona,” Michigan head coach Dusty May said at Lucas Oil Stadium. “I see so many similarities with the intangibles and the team character of both of us, and then obviously when you factor in the size and both teams get a lot of credit for how good our front lines are, but there’s some great guards and very intelligent basketball being played by both teams.”
Each side is anchored by a European center who towers at over 7 feet tall. Aday Mara for Michigan stands at 7-foot-3, while Arizona’s Motiejus Krivas is 7-foot-2. Both aren’t the top scorers on their respective teams, but in a lot of ways the offense is dependent on them. Each center attracts so much attention because of their size and what they can do with the basketball that the rest of the floor opens up for the wings and guards.
“They’re a physical team, so it’s going to be amazing,” Mara said of his anticipation for the matchup of 7-footers.
“I’m really looking forward to playing him and competing,” Krivas added on his battle with Mara.
On the wings, Koa Peat, Ivan Kharchenkov and Tobe Awaka have been incredible for Arizona all season long as forwards who can drive to the basket but also shoot the 3-point shot. Michigan is in a comparable position with Yaxel Lendeborg, Morez Johnson Jr. and Nimari Burnett, who can all score on multiple levels.
Lendeborg was in the conversation for national player of the year, as was Peat as just a freshman. Michigan has its own freshman presence in Trey McKinney, as each side has a mix of experience and youth to lead the way.
“Trey has been awesome,” May said on Friday. “Burries and Peat, their maturity, their physical and mental maturity … I think Trey is very similar to the Arizona freshmen, in that it’s their physical and mental maturity that’s allowed them to do that on this stage.”
Guard play is another facet of the game where the Wolverines and Wildcats excel. Cadeau and Roddy Gayle Jr. are dynamic for Michigan, with Burries and Jayden Bradley being arguably the best guard tandem in the country for Arizona.
All told, the similarities of these two teams are off the charts. They’re not exactly carbon copies of each other, but they’re about as close as you can possibly get in a Final Four matchup — with the amount of physicality each team utilizes as possibly the greatest resemblance.
“To me, that physicality is the price of admission,” Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd said. “If you’re not physical and you’re not willing to go toe to toe and fight, eventually, I don’t care what type of tricks you’ve got up your sleeve as a coach, you’re probably going to come up short.”
At positions one through five, being physical is non-negotiable for either Arizona or Michigan. This is going to be a dogfight — and it’ll be between two dogs of the same breed.
According to May, the national semifinal is “going to be won in the 39th or 40th minute” by the team who can execute better shot-making. And with field goal percentages within 0.3%, free throw rates within 1.7%, and the exact same 3-point percentage at 36.0%, the numbers are there to back up the fact that Arizona and Michigan are primed to go down to the wire.
The Wildcats and Wolverines have been dominant powers since November, and they’ll meet on Saturday night inside Lucas Oil Stadium on a hardwood floor, between two 10-foot baskets, for 40 minutes of basketball.
Just as every other game of college hoops begins — but this one feels different, and it may just be because of how much these teams are similar.
Similar construction, similar mindset, and without a doubt, a similar goal to advance to Monday night’s national title game.
