LOS ANGELES — The junkyard dogs finally met their match. They were beat𝓀🃏en by a pack of Wolverines.
Florida State, which had — for good reason — be🌃en boasting about its🐠 “junkyard dog” defense that had been terrorizing opponents in its improbable NCAA Tournament run to the Elite Eight, was beaten at its own game in Saturday night’s West Region final.
Michigan defeated Florida State, 58-54, before 19,665 at a sold-out Staples Center to advance to play Loyola C🧜hicago, the darlings of this tournament, in Saturday’s Final Four semifinal in San Antonio.
The No. 3 seeded Wolverines (32-7) did so by out-defending the defensive-minded Seminoles, a N😼o. 9 seed that had been wreaking havoc on opponents with their frenetic defense.
Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton, before Saturday night’s game, described his team’s defense this way: “Thജe junkyard dog principle is this: In the South where we’re raised, a junkyard is where a lot of broke-down cars෴ are in a big old fence, and they have these ferocious dogs that guard the junkyard so that people won’t climb over the fence to go and take parts from cars.
“We adopted the ‘junkyard dog’ principle because that’s the way we want to play. We want to be like junkyard dogs that really want to pro💞tect their yard.’💜’
On Saturday ni🎃ght, the Wolverines ♑broke into the Seminoles’ yard and took what they wanted most. A win.
“I think there’s a false perception of Michigan that, because we’ve got a bunch of ki📖ds that are easy to like, they’re great kids, great students, that they’re not tough,’’ Michigan coach John Beilein said. “They’ve been tough all year long. The Big Ten is tough. You don’t win 13 games in the Big Ten and four games in four days at [Madison Square] Garden [to win the Big Ten Tournament] if you’re not tough.
“So, [the Michigan players] call themselves ‘pitbulls.’ [Florida State] had junkyard dogs. Pitbulls was a little bit of the pregame sꦬpeech, that we’re ready and we’re strong and we’ll get into a fight, that we had that dog in [us].’’
So next Saturday, Michigan will play in its eigh🦩th Final Four and first since 2013. With its next opponent 11th-seeded Loyola Chicago, Michigan becomes the first team since 1979 to get to a Final Four without having to face a top-5 seed.
“We worked so hard for three years and now ꧑we’re sܫo close,’’ Michigan center Moe Wagner said. “Now we’re going to the Final Four.’’
Michigan is now 8-6 all-time in Elite Eight games. F🌃lorida State (23-12) was trying to make its second-ever Fi♏nal Four and first since 1972.
In the end, Florida State did what it had been doing to its opponents in this tournament, having entered the game allowing teams to shoot just 38 perc💃ent. Michigan shot just 38.8 percent Saturday (19-of-49), and was a miserable 4-of-22 from 3-point range. The Seminoles held Wagner, Michigan’s leading scorer, to 𒁏12 points on 3-of-11 shooting from the field — and 0-for-7 from 3-point range.
But Michiga𒁃n’s “pit bulls’’ were better than the “🦩junkyard dogs,’’ holding Florida State to 31.4 percent from the field (16-of-51).
“I’ve never seen a team work so hard an♓d be 💦so connected on both ends of the court. We were exceptional on defense,’’ Beilein said.
“Thei🍸r defensive philosophy bothered us as much as our defensive philosophy bothered them,’’ Hamilton said. “We obviously had a defensive game plan that was fairly effective, but they had a good de⭕fensive plan that disrupted us by getting three players back in transition and not allowing us to drive to the basket.’’
Offensively, Michigan was led by Kentucky transfer Charles Matthews, who led all scorers with 17 point and had eight rebounds and was named the Most🤡 Outstandin🐽g Player of the West Region.
Just when it looked like Michigan had seized🐓 control of the game, taking a 38-28 lead — its largest of the night — the deep and dangerous Seminoles put a few final scares into the Wolverines.
Michigan, which went only 16-of-24 from the foul lಌine for the game, didn’t help itself, missing five throws in the final 1:38 to keep the door open for Florida State.
PJ Savoy, who finished with 12 points off the bench for FSU, hit a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 55-52 with 1:09 remaining and then Phil Cofer, who led FSU with 16 points, scored on🅰 a tip-in to make it 56-54 with 22 seconds remaining.
Two Duncan Robinson free throws with 20.9 seconds remaining sealed it for Michigan, sending the Wolverines players and the Michigan-heavy crowd into a euphoric celebration on the floor and in the🌟 stands.
The celebration got so ra🏅ucous on the floor that Jordan Poole, M🌟ichigan’s buzzer-beater hero from last week, bloodied the nose of teammate Isaiah Livers when they embraced on the court.
Pitbulls o♋ver junkyard dogs. On to the Final Four.