The Big Ten hasn’t produced a national champion since the year 2000. The Pac 10/Pac 12 hasn’t done so since 1997, and with that conference now extinct, they will literally never win one again. The Arizona Wildcats, who now reside in the Big 12, won that title in 1997, and they’re back in the Final Four again this year. They’ll take on Michigan, who won it all, once in 1989, but finished runner-up in 2013 and 2018. Wolverines point guard Elliot Cadeau is ready.
“I think it’s a great matchup, they’re a really talented team,” Cadeau said to The Sports Bank, and a couple other reporters on the floor of the United Center during the postgame celebration today.
“I think it’s going to be a fun game.”
Michigan thrashed Tennessee today 95-62 in a game that was every bit as lopsided as that sounds.
The blowout win clinched the Midwest Regional title for the Wolverines, and locked up the school’s ninth Final Four berth.
Elliot Cadeau said the team will celebrate tonight, and then start to look at tape of Arizona tomorrow.
“I know they’re big, really physical, they live in the paint,” the North Carolina transfer said of the Wildcats.
Michigan versus Arizona is the later of the two Final Four tip-offs at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on Saturday.
The Wolverines are favored by 1.5 while Illinois is favored by 2.5, over UConn, in the earlier game.
In Dusty We Trusty
Michigan is the current favorite to win it all, and thus far in the tournament, it’s easy to see why.
Behind Midwest Regional Most Outstanding Player and Big Ten Player of the Year Yaxel Landeborg, and star power forward Morez Johnson, they very much look the part right now.
Plus, Head Coach Dusty May might be among the best at what he does right now. Elliot Cadeau, the type of point guard who can take over a game without scoring, explained why he transferred in to Ann Arbor from North Carolina.
“He told me that if I came here, we were going to win, so he put his trust in me and I put my trust in him,” the Brooklyn native said amidst the confetti and trophy list celebration in Chicago.
“We didn’t come here thinking we were going to win by 30, but we had confidence in oursleves and we ended up doing it.”
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network, RG, Ratings and SportsBoom. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes and the Washington Post.