Wolverines’ Mich-on is still not impossible
INDIANAPOLIS — Moe Wagner gritted his teeth, pumped his fist and stuck out his mouthpiece to the crowd’s delight Sunday.
A few minutes later, the tough German took a couple more bows — first on the baseline in front of Michigan’s bench, then with the rest of his teammates near midcourt.
Suddenly, the often overlooked 6-foot11 forward was the well-deserved center of attention.
Wagner scored a career high 26 points, made the basket that spurred Michigan’s furious second-half rally and capped the day with a 3-pointer to give the Wolverines (26-11) the lead for good as they knocked off second-seeded Louisville 73-69 on Sunday to reach the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2014.
“He’s got the mentality where he wants to make the play,” said Derrick Walton Jr., who drove in for Michigan’s final basket with 29 seconds left. “He just makes the right play at all times. He has the calls to make the big plays, so we feed off him because he’s not afraid of anything.”
His team trailing 45-36 with 16:09 to play, Wagner made a layup that started a 17-6 run to give Michigan its first lead since the opening minutes of the game. When Wagner knocked down a 3-pointer with 6:39 to go to break a 55-55 tie, the Wolverines never trailed again.
Afterward, Michigan’s players celebrated by jumping around near midcourt, then walking next to the pep band and pumping their fists toward yellow-clad fans as the school fight song boomed. Once inside the locker room, coach John Beilein playfully squirted his players with a water gun.
“A little damp right now,” Beilein said as the postgame news conference began. “But our guys, we started a tradition of taking a shower, I guess, without going into the shower after good wins. It’s not stopping.”
Despite going 3-3 in their previous six games, Louisville (25-9) came into Sunday as a small favorite.
Coach Rick Pitino was 3-1 in head-tohead matchups with Beilein and the Cardinals had made it to the Sweet 16 in each of their previous four NCAA appearances.
“Probably the weakness of our team this year has been our defense,” Pitino said. “Our offense in the last 10 days or two weeks, we’ve gotten significantly better because we worked inside to out.”
Donovan Mitchell finished with 19 points, seven rebounds and five assists to lead Louisville. Deng Adel had 16 points and Mangok Mathiang added 13. Not much went as expected, though. Louisville’s pressure defense forced only six Michigan turnovers and the Cardinals wound up just 5 of 20 on 3-pointers. —AP