NCAA Tournament: Heroic efforts from role players can't save Michigan against Griffin, OU

 
Michigan coach John Beilein typically pushed the right buttons against the Oklahoma Sooners. The wily Wolverine coaxed great efforts from role players, and kept his team close with a unique defensive style.
 
There was just one very big problem for Beilein and his team: They didn't have Blake Griffin.
 
The best player in all of college basketball simply towered above the men from Michigan on Saturday afternoon in Kansas City. Griffin's 33-point, 17-rebound masterpiece carried Oklahoma to a 73-63 win over the 10th-seeded Wolverines in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The victory puts the second-seeded Sooners in the South Regional semifinals, where Coach Jeff Capel's team will play either Syracuse or Arizona State next Friday in Memphis.
 
The outcome of this second-round slugfest in the Sprint Center came down to one simple reality: Blake Griffin dominated near the rim, scoring and rebounding whenever his teammates needed a big play. On a day when Michigan played well enough to beat many other highly-credentialed opponents, Oklahoma survived the Maize and Blue's bold brand of ball because of their meal-ticket terror simply wouldn't be denied.

Beilein, who only affirmed his status as a top-flight tournament coach in this game, found the right players to attack Oklahoma. While the Sooners' determined guards held Manny Harris (only 11 points on 3-of-9 shooting) in check, and Griffin kept DeShawn Sims (a modest 14 points) at bay, Beilein used a secret weapon that Oklahoma couldn't have prepared for.
 
The Michigan mastermind used this particular situation to call upon Anthony Wright, a man who wouldn't have acquired a prominent place in any opponent's scouting report. Before he stared down the Sooners on Saturday, Wright--a beefy forward with an ability to knock down threes--had scored more than 6 points in only one game all season long, on Nov. 25 against a low-caliber opponent, Norfolk State. Oklahoma obviously provided a much bigger challenge, and for a player who averaged just 2 points per game, it seemed as though Beilein was making a mistake by inserting his seldom-used sophomore into a game of such magnitude.
 
But as has been the case for so much of 2009 (and as will be the case in future years in Ann Arbor), Beilein knew exactly what he was doing. Wright hit 3-of-4 3-pointers and tallied a career-high 14 points, while also snagging 3 offensive rebounds. Thanks to this huge effort from a very unexpected source, plus an equally stunning 11-point performance from defense-first guard C.J. Lee, the Wolverines crept within three points of the Sooners, at 58-55, with just 6:02 remaining in regulation time. Oklahoma presented a far more difficult matchup for Michigan than Clemson did, but Beilein still found ways to keep the Maize and Blue in the thick of the fight.

Down the stretch, however, Griffin put an end to Michigan's feel-good story and the role players who, for a brief while, extended its life.
 
When his team was threatened by the hard-charging Wolverines, Griffin scored six of his team's next eight points by warring on the offensive glass and getting to the foul line. With layups, free throws and all-around excellence near the rim, Griffin--an always-dominant presence against Sims and the rest of an inadequate Michigan frontline--powered OU to a 66-57 lead with 2:35 left. Harris and the rest of the UM backcourt couldn't hit enough threes in the final minutes, and a special season of hoops in Ann Arbor came to an understandable but still painful end.
 
Speaking of pain, however, the agony of this loss should wear off rather quickly. Michigan not only returned to the Big Dance for the first time in 11 years; the Wolverines won in the NCAA Tournament as well. When a third-seeded squad bowed out against UCLA in the second round of the 1998 event, real disappointment filled the Michigan basketball world. This loss, in terms of negative impact, isn't even close to the Tractor Traylor tumble against Steve Lavin's Bruins. That defeat cut short what could have been a Final Four season. This year, merely getting to the tournament represented a huge success. A win over Clemson was gravy.
 
Next year, Michigan basketball will look to grow. The Wolverines can only hope that if they get to the 2010 NCAA Tournament, they won't have to run into anyone as talented as Blake Griffin.

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