INDIANAPOLIS – As Yaxel Lendeborg walked off the floor at Lucas Oil Stadium, went down the six steps it took to exit the elevated court inside the cavernous football dome and made his way down the tunnel toward the Michigan locker room, Lendeborg was greeted by a sea of Michigan students in their designated section behind the basket.
The Wolverine students provided words of admiration, chanting “Yaxel, Yaxel, Yaxel,” but they also provided something else entirely — a belt.
Two of them actually, two black belts, outstretched, hoping to get Lendeborg’s attention as he continued to high-five the hands that lined the railing on the edge of the student section. And as he made his way through the crowd, Lendeborg noticed — and took — one of the belts.
He firmly grasped it with his right hand with the two ends together, and started hitting the railing, again and again and again — with Lendeborg’s grin growing larger with each of the belt’s seven strikes.
“Belt to ass” is what the Michigan students, and Lendeborg, were referencing after Saturday night’s second national semifinal — and that was a warranted response after what transpired on that elevated floor in Indianapolis.
Michigan defeated Arizona 91-73 to advance to the national championship game against UConn, and was up by as many as 30 points in the second half. In the last 18 or so minutes of the ballgame, it wasn’t even close, as the Wolverines were the judge, jury and executioner over the Wildcats.
Dusty May’s team was the more physical group — it was undoubtedly the aggressor. And in a game between the No. 1 and No. 2 efficient defenses in the country, whoever was the more physical team would have an upper hand that would be hard to overcome.
“We've played with great physicality all year,” May said postgame. “We've done a great job in the weight room. We've done, I think, a real solid job of not beating our guys up in practice but yet preparing them for the mental and physical wear and tear of these types of games.”
With the sheer will that Michigan was imposing, it looked more like a 1-seed vs. 16-seed matchup than a game that featured the top two most efficient teams on KenPom. This was supposed to be an elite matchup between two elite teams — quite possibly the best two in the sport — but the matchup felt more like a bullying than a competitive basketball game.
The Wolverines were up 10-1 less than three minutes in, and continued that momentum throughout all 40 minutes. Even with Lendeborg exiting with foul trouble early on, and then with 8:51 left in the first half with reported knee and ankle issues.
The segment right after Lendeborg exited was the only part of the game where Arizona found success, but even with Michigan’s star remaining out up until the half, it bounced back and found itself up by 16 at the break.
“If you can get off to a good start in games, you know, it's usually pretty impactful. And that definitely was the case today,” Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd said after his team’s loss.
He cited Michigan’s presence in the paint, as well as rebounding, for what was the difference in his team not looking like itself. Aday Mara was clinical down low on both ends of the floor, and he really stepped up with Lendeborg not out there on the floor.
The 7-foot-3 center was able to win the battle against Arizona’s excellent size, opening up the rest of the floor for the Wolverines to do their thing.
“Aday was sensational. He was at the rim, catching lobs. He was a force down low. He was a pressure release up top. I mean, he's such a smart basketball player,” May explained.
His presence forced the Wildcats to look nothing like themselves. Arizona had lost just two games all season, just one in regulation, and did so by a combined seven points. No one had been able to do what Michigan was doing to the Wildcats, and it only ramped up in the second half.
Arizona guard Jaden Bradley explained that the mood in the halftime locker room was upbeat, and that Arizona wasn’t demoralized in the slightest. Lloyd said that the energy among his group was the same that it always was, and they believed that they could find a way to get back into the ballgame.
But Arizona’s locker room after the game told an entirely different story.
Silence, dead silence, was what filled the room after the Wildcats’ Final Four loss. In a timeframe that’s reserved for media interviews, where the locker room is frequently a zoo — and a loud one at that — there was a period of several minutes where only a whisper was what anyone dared to utter.
That’s what Michigan did to Arizona — that’s how bad it really was.
“It was tough,” Bradley said in the locker room.
“When you let a team get up by that much, it’s hard to recover,” Motiejus Krivas added.
The spirit that was there at halftime was completely gone by the time the buzzer sounded, with each Michigan shot being another dagger in a second half that seemed to have a surplus of them.
The Wolverines made 7 of 11 shots from deep in that second half, as guards Elliot Cadeau and Trey McKinney caught fire, while Lendeborg returned to action and wasted no time — hitting a 3 less than two minutes after the half.
“Our offense is humming right now,” forward Will Tschetter mentioned after the game.
“When we’re playing at that pace and that level of focus, I think we’re unbeatable,” guard Roddy Gayle Jr. added, emphatically.
But it’s hard to argue with Gayle’s sentiment. Against a team like Arizona that was so dominant throughout the season, Michigan was able to out-physical and outshoot the Wildcats out of the football stadium-turned-gym. The lead turned from 16 at half to as many as 30 with 10:31 to go, as the Wolverines kept their foot on the gas until this one was all but over.
“They had our kryptonite,” Lloyd explained — and Michigan most certainly did.
It all came down to preparation and matchups, May and his players said after the game. With Lloyd being a longtime Gonzaga assistant before coming to Arizona in 2021, and installing a similar system with the Wildcats, Michigan knew what it was in for.
The Wolverines beat Gonzaga by 40 points earlier this season, which gave May’s team confidence that they could do something similar against the Wildcats in the Final Four.
“I do think we matched up well with Arizona better than we have some other teams this year,” May said.
It may not have ended with a 40-point margin, but there were times where it was close. The difference of 18 points when the final buzzer sounded might not be at a historic level for the Final Four, but with the anticipation that was built before the matchup of the final No. 1 seeds standing, Michigan’s beatdown of Arizona felt jaw-dropping.
It wasn’t just one aspect of the game. The Wolverines were more physical down low early on, and were more efficient at finding and making big shots in the second half. Every aspect of winning basketball was executed by Michigan, as it put a bow on what was an exclamation point of a victory.
May and his team are one win away from college basketball glory, but before the page officially turns to Monday night’s championship game, Indianapolis was left with a sense of shock after the demolition that took place in the Final Four.
Gayle summed up the feeling, as his team proved to be a wrecking ball, and Arizona was simply in the way.
“As far as the domination of it, it’s kind of unreal.”
