How Michigan made win over previously-unbeaten Gonzaga look so easy
LAS VEGAS – A sight seen often at Gonzaga games: Streams of Zag fans hitting the exits midway through the second half with a blowout win secured.
A sight rarely, if ever seen: Hundreds of Gonzaga fans in the concourses, leaving an arena midway through the second half with the Zags trailing by 40 points.
That was the case Wednesday night at MGM Grand Garden Arena when No. 7 Michigan pummeled No. 12 Gonzaga from tip to buzzer, 101-61, to win the Players Era Championship and pocket $1 million NIL funds. GU will receive $500,000 as the runner-up.
The Wolverines were so good at both ends of the court, they had the look of past Gonzaga nemeses – UConn in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons and Purdue in 2022-23 and 2023-24.
“Just to respond,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said of his instructions to his team during a couple of timeouts that failed to stem Michigan’s early momentum. “We weren’t even doing what we’ve done so well all year. We weren’t hitting our coverages on the defensive end, we were nowhere to be found, rotations. Again, no pressure on the rim in transition.”
Gonzaga’s offense and defense, the latter a cornerstone through the first six games, was no match against the bigger, more athletic Wolverines.
“We’re a team that really scores well inside, very efficient from 2 (point field goals),” Few said. “We literally couldn’t generate any scoring there at all. Braden (Huff) did a nice job of finding some creases and he was able to hit that mid-range floater and that was essentially it. Which is crazy as good as we’ve been this year. That was literally all we had offensively.”
Michigan coach Dusty May spent countless hours watching Gonzaga’s offense earlier in his coaching career. He also dished credit to first-year assistant Justin Joyner, who was well versed on Gonzaga during a seven-year stint on Randy Bennett’s staff at Saint Mary’s.
“As I told the guys on TNT, I don’t think there’s a living basketball coach that I’ve watched more of their games as a fan than coach Few,” May said. “I competed against his teams twice as an assistant and in both the games immediately after I thought how much I had learned from scouting them, watching them. During COVID, I probably watched an entire season of their offensive possessions so hats off to them.
“Everything went right for us. Not a lot went right for them. We knew they were going to play through the posts. It’s no secret, they’ve done it for eternity. Those guys create overreactions, advantages and mismatches so we knew we had to take care of the paint first. But when you have as much size and length and versatility like we do inside … once you get a couple blocks from behind or the side, you start looking around and I think that probably happened tonight.”
The Zags came into the game averaging 95 points on 53% shooting. They were limited to 61 points on 34% shooting. Paint points, a staple of GU’s offense, favored Michigan 42-34.
“They were just the better team,” said Huff, who matched Tyon Grant-Foster with a team-high 14 points. “More physical, more together, just a more connected group. A lot of things we can address, go back and watch this and learn from it.”