For the third consecutive night, Michigan broke a program that doesn’t break. For the third time in three days, I looked at the scoreboard and couldn’t believe there were 10 minutes left to play.
On Monday night, you could argue that maybe San Diego State wasn’t the team that everyone thought they were. Maybe chalk Tuesday up to Steven Pearl not being up to the job. But to do the same thing on Wednesday against Gonzaga — the No. 1 team in the country and one of the most consistent programs in college basketball — makes this the ultimate statement week for Michigan.
The Wolverines turned the Players Era Championship into an open-gym dunk session in the second half, leaving with a 101-61 win over Gonzaga and an extra $1 million in NIL.
The only thing you heard in the media room over the last three nights was opposing beat writers murmuring about the program they covered suffering the worst loss since this date or that. Mostly in the 90s, when programs weren’t anything like what they are in the modern era.
Michigan didn’t just play well in Las Vegas; it played what has to be one of the best 120-minute stretches of Feast Week basketball that college basketball has ever seen. Three games against top-50 teams, three wins by a combined 110 points. The Wolverines treated San Diego State, Auburn, and Gonzaga like they were lousy buy-game opponents or non-D1s.
The three wins in three days pushed Michigan to No. 1 in KenPom’s rankings and were impressive enough to justify optimism that would have felt outrageous 72 hours ago. Any team that can play like this can play on Monday night in April.
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