INDIANAPOLIS – After a 25-year-old drought, Tommy Lloyd has led Arizona back to the promise land. After taking down four conference tournament champions in LIU (Northeast), Utah State (Mountain West), Arkansas (SEC), and Purdue (Big 10), the Wildcats are gearing up for a clash of the titans against another Big 10 foe. Check out out preview of No. 1 Arizona and No. 1 Michigan ahead of the Final Four at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
Get to know the Michigan Wolverines:
Michigan (35-3) is led by head coach Dusty May and one of the top starting fives in the country that features Big 10 Player of the Year Yaxel Lendeborg, as well as star point guard Elliot Cadeau, forward Morez Johnson Jr., and center Aday Mara. The Wolverines cruised through the Big 10 regular season, winning the conference championship by four games, before falling to Purdue in the tournament championship.
As the only other No. 1 seed remaining in March Madness, Michigan had a similar path to Indy as the Wildcats. The Wolverines took down 16-seed Howard and No. 9 St. Louis in the First and Second Rounds, before knocking off No. 4 Alabama in the Sweet 16 and manhandling No. 6 Tennessee in the Elite 8. This is the ninth Final Four appearance for Michigan, which like Arizona, has one national championship to the program’s name.
Dusty May is in his second year in Ann Arbor and just his eighth season as a head coach. May spent the first six years of his head coaching career at Florida Atlantic, leading the Owls to a Final Four in 2023, before taking down Tommy Lloyd and the Wildcats 96-95 in double overtime in Las Vegas in December the following season. May does not have any playing experience, but began his career as a student manager in 1996 at Indiana under legendary head coach Bob Knight, before serving in a number of assistant roles at Murray State, Louisiana Tech, and Florida, and more.
The Wolverines will be one of the most complete and physical teams the Wildcats matchup against this season. Lendeborg averages a team-high 15.2 points and also leads the team with 1.2 steals per game. The senior, who began his collegiate career at JUCO Arizona Western College in Yuma, also averages 7.0 rebounds, 3.3 assists, and 1.3 blocks, while shooting 52.0 percent from the field and 37.2 percent from beyond the arc.
The back court is led by point guard Elliot Cadeau, the North Carolina transfer who is more of a facilitator than a scorer in Dusty May’s system. He averages 10.2 points and 5.8 assist per game while shooting 41.6 percent from the field and 69.4 percent from the free throw line, but also turns the ball over 2.3 times per game. Nimari Burnett starts at the two for Michigan, but he shares time with Trey McKenney off the bench. Burnett does a little bit of everything, averaging 8.4 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 1.2 assists in 19.8 minutes. McKenney contributes 9.8 points and 2.6 rebounds in 21.7 minutes, while shooting 89.0 percent from the free throw line.
Rounding out the front court along side Lendeborg are forward Morez Johnson Jr. and Aday Mara. Johnson Jr., who spent two seasons with Tommy Lloyd at Team USA, averages 13.2 points, a team-high 7.3 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks, while shooting an incredibly efficient 62.5 percent from the field. Mara, the 7-foot-3 Spaniard who began his career at UCLA, is averaging 11.8 points, 6.8 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 2.6 blocks per game, while connecting on 66.9 percent on his attempts from the floor this season.
Michigan by the Numbers:
Michigan currently sits atop the KenPom.com rankings at No. 1. In fact, the 2025-26 Michigan is one of the highest rated teams of all-time by the analytics site. The Wolverines boast the top-rated defensive efficiency, holding opponents to 69.6 points per game. Michigan also has the fifth-best offensive efficiency on KenPom and is eighth in the nation in scoring, averaging 87.7 points per game. For comparison, the Wildcats are the No. 2 defensive efficiency team and No. 4 offensive efficiency team on KenPom, setting up what should be a clash of the titans between two of the best college basketball teams of all-time statistically.
Michigan checks in in the top 10 a number of statistical categories on both ends of the floor. The Wolverines have the 4th-best field goal percentage in the nation, shooting 51.1 percent from the field. Dusty May’s group is also ranked fourth in assists per game with 18.8 and is second in the nation in blocks with 6.1 per game.
Per KenPom, the Wolverines are also one of the best two-point shooting teams in the nation, checking at No. 2. Defensively, Michigan has the third-best defense against two-point shooting this season. All in all, it should be a game where two teams with smash mouth styles battle it out inside.
One area where Arizona has an advantage is on the glass. The Wildcats are the second best rebounding team in the nation, averaging 42.6 boards per game, while the Wolverines check in at No. 16 with 40.1. In a heavyweight battle like this, those 2.5 extra rebounds could be the difference, especially since Arizona averages 2.0 more offensive rebounds per game with Tobe Awaka, the top offensive rebounder in the nation per KenPom.
Arizona-Michigan Preview & Prediction:
This is going to be the most physical game Arizona plays all season. Two things to consider that don’t have any metrics or stats tied to them are how the Big 12 prepare the Wildcats for this game, as well as removed pressure of final making it to a Final Four.
The Big 10 may have gotten the most teams into the tournament, but the Big 12 was undeniably the best and toughest league in college basketball this season. Competition at the top of the league was stiff for the Wolverines, facing Nebraska, Michigan State, and Purdue, but the Wildcats battled some of the best players and coaches night in and night out, between Joshua Jefferson and Iowa State, AJ Dybantsa and BYU, Darryn Peterson and Kansas, and Kingston Flemings and Houston.
As for pressure, after making the program’s first Final Four in a quarter century, you could almost literally feel the collective exhale and relaxation from the Tucson community. Before leaving for Indianapolis on Wednesday, Tommy Lloyd said he could feel it too.
While the goal from here on out is to win a national championship, it feels like in someways, the Wildcats are playing with house money. There’s no need to play tense or with any nerves (not that they’ve played like that much, if at all, this season). But, they’ve already broken the curse and made it to the Final Four, so just go out and leave it all on the court.
Jaden Bradley, Ivan Kharchenkov, and Motiejus Krivas will be relied on heavily to shut down the Wolverines on offense. Don’t be surprised in Kharchenkov guards the 1-4 and is tasked with trying to limit Lendeborg on the offensive end. As for the Wildcats’ offense, Brayden Burries will need to continue being a three-level scorer, while Koa Peat’s soft touch and mid-range jumper will need to be on full display, since scoring around Mara and Michigan’s size will be a tough task.
This is not going to be a double-digit victory like the Wildcats have enjoyed throughout March Madness thus far. Expect a back and forth battle in Indianapolis on Saturday, with Arizona defeating Michigan 81-77 and advancing to the title game on Monday against Illinois or UConn.