DES MOINES, Iowa — Charles Matthews ran down the floor with some urgency, shooting the moment the ball came to him. He heard the buzzer sound, saw the basket light up red and the ball roll around the rim with the guise of a shooter’s bounce, before falling out. Then he smiled.
Thursday, the Wolverines were happy for the opportunity to overwhelm an opponent by simply walking onto the court.
If everything had gone as planned, Matthews would be in the NBA right now. His expectation was to follow in the footsteps of John Wall, Anthony Davis and Karl-Anthony Towns.
He didn’t.
More than five years after he committed to Kentucky with intentions of becoming the next great one-and-done lighting college basketball on fire, Matthews is the captain of a Michigan basketball team with national championship aspirations, finally ready for one last go-around.
For 24 hours after the loss to the Spartans, Michigan stewed — and its coaching staff let it. But Monday afternoon, with just three days until its NCAA Tournament journey would get underway against 15th-seeded Montana, Wolverines coach John Beilein knew it was time to turn the corner.
Ask anyone and they’ll tell you Livers is trending up going into the NCAA Tournament, due in large part to an uptick in confidence. Developing that has been a process, but now — after two years where he gained a starting role, then lost it, then got it back and lost it again — Livers is hitting a crescendo at just the right time.
For Brazdeikis, everything flows from confidence. For the rest of the country, that’s a euphemism for arrogance. He’s that guy — the one who gets chants and boos at opposing arenas, then smiles, hits a shot and blows a kiss. Starting with tomorrow’s game against Montana, Brazdeikis will be a focus for each of Michigan’s NCAA Tournament opponents, in more ways than one.
The Daily men’s basketball beat writers offer their predictions of Michigan’s postseason fate:
The title game made clear that those issues aren’t totally resolved. But there were some improvements, tweaks that came out against lesser competition. And perhaps the road to another March run is taking those tweaks a step further — something the Wolverines have no shortage of motivation to do.
Well, it happened again.
For the third time in the last month or so, the Michigan men’s basketball team took on Michigan State, and for the third time, the Wolverines started strong, got out to a lead and fell apart at the end.
For the third time in three weeks, the Wolverines lost a high-stakes battle with their in-state rivals.