March Madness: Moritz Wagner carries Michigan to upset over Louisville

Moritz Wagner’s big second half against Louisville leads Michigan to March Madness’ Sweet 16.

It looked like Louisville was on their way to their fifth straight appearance in the Sweet 16. The Cardinals had an eight-point lead at halftime as their length, athleticism and tenacity on defense kept the Michigan Wolverines’ offense in check. Derrick Walton Jr. was struggling and Louisville was dominating the interior with their size advantage.

But halftime adjustments by John Beilein and superb execution by sophomore big man Moritz Wagner kept the Michigan Wolverines rolling on their way to their seventh straight win, topping the Cardinals, 73-69, to advance to the Sweet 16 later this week.

Michigan attacked Louisville’s switching defense to perfection in the second half. The Wolverines were able to create consistent mismatches with Wagner on smaller defenders and the forward took advantage scoring 17 of his 26 points (11-of-14 shooting overall) in the final 20 minutes. He attacked the basket, stepped out and hit a three and used his improved post moves to score easy buckets.

Wagner also got help from D.J. Wilson (17 points, including four clutch free throws to seal the game) and Zak Irvin (11 points on 5-of-9 shooting). Despite shooting the ball poorly (3-of-10), Walton also contributed by scoring 10 points, grabbing seven rebounds, dishing out six assists and turning the ball over zero times. His excellent floor game was capped off by a driving layup that put Michigan up 69-65 with 30 seconds remaining.

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But it wasn’t just the Wolverines’ second-half offensive attack and Wagner’s play that led them to a victory. It was also about their intensity defensively in the final frame. Michigan was more active, forcing the Cardinals to take long twos and threes instead of continuing to give up points in the paint like they did in the first half.

The Cardinals shot 46 percent from the field overall but drilled just 25 percent of their treys and had just 12 assists to 11 turnovers.

And that was ultimately the difference in the game. While Michigan was scoring nearly every trip down the court in the second half, Louisville had stretches when they couldn’t buy a basket. Add in Quinton Snider’s 0-fer performance (0 points on 0-of-9 shooting, 0-of-7 from three), and Louisville made it difficult on themselves when Wagner got hot and found the right match-ups to attack.

That has been the Cardinals’ biggest problem all season and it showed itself on Sunday afternoon.

Meanwhile, Michigan will be headed to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2014. They will face off against the winner of tonight’s game between Oregon and Rhode Island but regardless of who comes out victorious in that matchup, the Wolverines are playing like a team on a mission.

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Two Tuesday’s ago, the Wolverines were involved in a scary plane crash that could’ve been fatal if it wasn’t for their pilot. They captured the Big Ten Conference Tournament championship days later and are now rolling, having won seven straight games since their victory over Nebraska to close out the regular season. Michigan has suddenly turned into a Final Four contender that no one wants to face. They have two versatile bigs in Wilson and Wagner, and great guard play and three-point shooting. Michigan has all the momentum and no one can seem to stop them.

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