Michigan impressive against Texas A&M, advances to Elite Eight

It was all Michigan, nearly all the time against the No. 7 Texas A&M Aggies in the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament where the No. 3 Wolverines won by a score of 99-72.

The 99 points are the most the Wolverines have scored in an NCAA Tournament game since 1992.

By the time the first half was over, Michigan held a 52-28 lead. U-M hit 9 three pointers in the first half, and made seven shots in the paint.

Nothing really changed in the second half, with such a big deficit A&M attempted to full court press Michigan, and it didn’t have much success. The strategy wasn’t all that successful, it gassed the Aggies out more than they already were.

At one point in the second half, Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman and Charles Matthews went on a run where they scored 27 of 29 points for Michigan. It was a game where every Michigan starter seemed to have their fingerprints on the victory.

In all, Michigan hit 14-24 three pointers, and broke Louisville’s NCAA Tournament record for most players with a three pointer.

Sometimes whatever can go wrong will go wrong, but tonight whatever could go right, went right for U-M.

Michigan had five players with double digit points scored. Matthews had 18, Mo Wagner had 21, Abdur-Rahkman had 24, Robinson had 10, and Zavier Simpson had 11 points.

It was a team effort that stopped the red hot Aggies, who annihilated the defending champion North Carolina Tar Heels in the round of 32. On both sides of the court, A&M didn’t have an answer.

Beilein’s defense suffocated the Aggies, Michigan recorded 12 steals and forced 14 turnovers.

The biggest takeaway from this game is how well Wagner and Abdur-Rahkman performed. To this point in the tournament, they were relatively quiet on the offensive side of things. That all changed against A&M, and if they can keep this level of play up in the Elite Eight... watch out.

Michigan showed how deep of a team they are. So many players on the team on any given night can catch fire and carry the team. As the game unfolded, it became surprising when Michigan missed a shot, as they were draining them at a much higher clip than missing them. U-M shot 61.9% from the field.

The Wolverines will play the winner of the Florida State versus Gonzaga tilt.