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Michigan Wolverines basketball beat Florida State in the Sweet 16, 76-58, to advance to its fourth Elite Eight in the last eight NCAA Tournaments. The Wolverines will take on UCLA in the East Regional Final (9:57 p.m. ET Tuesday).
Here is a look around the internet at what they’re saying about the Wolverines’ win and another Elite eight berth.
RELATED: Five Quick Takes On Michigan Drawing UCLA In The Elite Eight
RELATED: Five Takeaways From Michigan’s Sweet 16 Win Over Florida State
Chris Balas, The Wolverine: Michigan Wolverines Basketball, The 3-2-1: Elite Again … Yet Again
One Prediction
Not many will be picking against Michigan to get to the Final Four at this point. We won’t. And it’s looking as though the Wolverines will be a pretty big favorite to get there.
As well as Gonzaga is playing, that could be a heck of a game the way these two teams are competing right now.
Both, though, still have work to do.
“One game at a time,” Juwan Howard said with no expression. “We can celebrate tonight. Tomorrow, we’re looking forward to preparing for our next opponent.”
With yet another Final Four bid on the line. What a decade it’s been for Michigan basketball.
This was supposed to be a tall task, the tallest one yet. And the Wolverines shrugged and did what they do, chopping it down to size and brushing it off.
Everything is growing before our eyes — the confidence, the roles, the possibilities. Michigan was part-masterful and part-menacing Sunday night, again displaying its completeness and competitiveness. Florida State came in as the tallest team in the country, a dangerous four seed and popular upset pick. That notion lasted about 10 minutes, or about as long as it took the Seminoles to catch a whiff of Michigan’s ramped-up defense.
The Wolverines are rolling to the Elite Eight after dismantling Florida State 76-58, snapping the spirit of what was billed as a tough-minded team. The Seminoles were a mess, turning the ball over at every turn, and the Wolverines never stopped messing with them. And now, another crazy twist: Michigan faces 11th-seeded UCLA on Tuesday night (9:57 p.m., TBS) for a spot in the Final Four, after the Bruins stunned No. 2 Alabama.
Michigan doesn’t let up, a direct reflection of its coach. In just his second season, Juwan Howard has pieced together a relentless power, even with a big piece missing. Howard instills confidence in so many players, they’re ready to deliver when needed. Brandon Johns Jr., who replaced the injured Isaiah Livers in the starting lineup, was forceful again, attacking the basket for 14 points. So was his fellow big man, 7-footer Hunter Dickinson.
However tall Florida State looked, Michigan looked taller, and the Seminoles played smaller. For all Florida State’s celebrated height, Michigan won the rebounding battle and attacked the offensive glass.
There lately might have been some question about how good Michigan could be at basketball, still, with one of its best players now a spectator wearing a protective boot. Sunday settled the matter. Exceptionally good is the correct answer. Florida State arrived as a legitimate threat and left an empty husk, picked apart and gutted in pretty much every way a team can be, so thoroughly that even the walk-ons got some shine. This is really the best way to reenter the conversation about the elite of the elite in college basketball this season. And that is where the Wolverines find themselves again, if you were inclined to wonder if they’d slipped off that plane to begin with.
For a very long time, it was Gonzaga and Baylor. Then Michigan sidled up. Then Isaiah Livers hurt his foot. Then came a 76-58 final score Sunday against a team that probably is one of the nation’s 15 best. So to be clear, it’s once more Gonzaga and Baylor and Michigan until proven otherwise. “That’s a team that really, really knows who they are,” Seminoles coach Leonard Hamilton said afterwards. “It wouldn’t surprise me at all for them to be standing there on Monday night with their finger up saying they’re No. 1.”
Brendan Quinn, The Athletic: They’re not going to build teams like this one from Michigan anymore
That’s the irony in all this. For all the chatter of other programs wanting to replicate Michigan’s model under Juwan Howard, they’re all chasing something that won’t exist again. This team — this 2020-21 Michigan team — could very well be the best team Howard coaches at Michigan. In this sport, if you’re really good, you don’t stick around to get old. And if you’re not used often, you don’t grow old waiting to play. This odd combination of talent and age … it doesn’t come around every day, let alone every year.
So Michigan better take advantage of it.
This might be the time to go win the whole damn thing.
Don’t sleep on Michigan
The Wolverines (23-4) are proving doubters wrong by winning – and winning big – without second-leading scorer Isaiah Livers. Coach Juwan Howard has inspired his team and, as a result, Michigan has looked very much the part of the No. 1 seed it earned in wins over LSU and now Florida State.
In an 18-point victory over the Seminoles on Sunday, Michigan got help from its supporting cast. And there are still two stars on this roster in All-American big man Hunter Dickinson and 6-9 guard Franz Wagner. It’s not as if Michigan is a dark-horse to win it all as a No. 1 seed, but how fast this group has been able to regroup without one of its best players speaks to the winning culture Howard has instilled. While the other eight Big Ten teams are at home, Michigan is still dancing.
Winner: Michigan dominates the paint
Michigan entered Sunday’s Sweet 16 showdown having made nine 3-pointers in a first round victory over Texas Southern and 10 in a second round win over LSU. But the No. 1 seed Wolverines came by their 76-58 victory against Florida State on Sunday in a different way: Michigan outscored the Seminoles 50-28 in the paint. In fact, the Wolverines’ starters combined for just one 3-pointer in the game and the Wolverines shot just 3-of-11 from beyond the arc in total. Center Hunter Dickinson and forwards Franz Wagner and Brandon Johns Jr. combined for 41 points.
The game was a great example of why Michigan is so dangerous. Even without much working from the outside, the Wolverines still managed to dominate a quality foe with its deep group of scorers comfortable with attacking at different levels.
3. Michigan Wolverines
Who they’ve beaten: No. 16 Texas Southern, No. 8 LSU, No. 4 Florida State
What I’ve seen: A skillfully coached team that was faded hard by many and predicted to fall prior to the Elite Eight (OK, and the Sweet 16) but has nonetheless averaged 81.3 points without its best player (Isaiah Livers) and separated from all of its opponents by the 10-minute mark of the second half. I almost put Michigan above Baylor, but without Livers I think the seeding needs to still be this way. The Wolverines got buckets at will Sunday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse vs. Florida State. U-M had 15 second-half layups and disassembled FSU’s intimidating, long defense to cruise along again. Juwan Howard has pulled off a fabulous coaching job. No school has more NCAA Tournament wins since 2013 than Michigan’s 17.
Myron Medcalf, ESPN.com: Reseeding the men’s March Madness 2021 field for the Elite Eight
3. Michigan Wolverines
Leonard Hamilton has been coaching college basketball since the early 1970s. He has seen it all. After Florida State’s 76-58 loss to Michigan on Sunday, he admitted that the Wolverines presented a unique set of problems with 7-foot-1 center Hunter Dickinson operating in the post. “This team executed so well,” Hamilton said. “Their spacing was unbelievable. They were extremely patient. We had a hard time turning them over. They really, really played off of their big guy. We spent so much time trying to defend Hunter, and they get to their perimeter shooters when the clock would run down to about 10 seconds left on the shot clock. They continue to keep staying in their system and they executed and made plays right toward the end. That’s what a good team will do.”
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