ATLANTA — On a night when the frontcourts drew all the eyes, it was the backcourts that made the difference when it mattered most. No. 1 seed Auburn’s guard play propelled it through a monstrous second-half run which the No. 5 seed Michigan men’s basketball team’s guards couldn’t match. And at the end of the night, the Wolverines are no longer dancing because of it.
The matchup between SEC Player of the Year Tigers forward Jenhi Broome and company against the Wolverines’ 7-foot duo of graduate center Vlad Goldin and junior forwards Danny Wolf didn’t disappoint. Broome finished with a 22-point, 16-rebound double-double while Goldin and Wolf had a combined 30 points and 15 rebounds — all three playing near to their expectations.
But the matchup down low didn’t define the Sweet Sixteen matchup. Rather, it was Auburn guards Tahaad Pettiford and Denver Jones that put the nail in the Wolverines’ coffin. Both Pettiford and Jones finished with 20 points, nearly double each of their season averages. And the duo made the biggest difference by coming alive when the Tigers made their game-defining second-half surge.
“A couple of guards got really hot, they got really heated up,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said. “Denver got heated up. Tahaad got heated up. We went to them, and they delivered.”
The most crucial shot came with just over 12 minutes to go. Michigan had garnered its largest lead of the game at nine and Pettiford walked up the court with the ball. With 20 seconds on the shot clock, Broome called for the ball before setting a loose screen at the top of the key. Pettiford, taking the screen, pulled up from deep 3-point range and hit only nylon.
Pettiford’s shot kickstarted a 28-6 run for the Tigers where he and Jones scored 24 of those points.
“Credit Auburn Pettiford and Jones,” Michigan coach Dusty May said. “… We went up nine, and Pettiford banged in a tough, deep one.”
A couple minutes later, Jones went on a personal 8-0 run that extended Auburn’s lead from one to nine that only grew larger from there. And once Pettiford and Jones got things going, the basket only got bigger for the Tigers.
“Honestly, I just saw one go in, and I just felt the basket get bigger,” Jones said. “I just wanted to continue being aggressive. Coach was getting me more involved in the plays, and I was just taking more advantage of it.”
As Pettiford and Jones went on their tear, there was no response from any of the Wolverines’ guards. Often looked to in moments of distress to make plays, junior guard Tre Donaldson had just five points with four turnovers and no assists in the game against his old team.
Michigan severely missed the play making of its go-to leader. And no one stepped up the same way junior guard Roddy Gayle Jr. did against No. 4 seed Texas A&M in the second round. Gayle had seven points, graduate guard Rubin Jones had six and freshman guard L.J. Cason had five — none of which provided any offensive sparks with makes or playmaking.
Pettiford and Denver got hot, and Michigan’s entire team went cold. And almost as important as the Tigers’ guards performances was the inability for the Wolverines’ guards to right the ship. No one stepped up in the wake of adversity — so as Michigan’s season came to a close in the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament, as the cliche says, it came down to guard play.
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