Charlie Neibergall/Associated Press
Michigan players celebrated after defeating Syracuse on Saturday.
ATLANTA — Late in the second half Saturday, Coach John Beilein worked the Michigan sideline, his jacket off, his sleeves rolled up, his tie loosened. He crouched. He leaned. He clapped and shouted. It was part coaching, part pleading, part aerobics.
There Beilein stood, a handful of heart-thumping minutes from the national championship game, most every seat in the Georgia Dome filled. All it took was some 35 years in coaching, with stints at almost every level from high school to Division I. All those vans driven and uniforms washed and floors swept. All those games in small gyms surrounded by empty seats.
He did not stand still.
On Saturday, his Wolverines delivered Beilein to the doorstep of his first national championship, to the title game against Louisville on Monday night. This Michigan team brought to mind those from the Fab Five era, with a 61-56 victory launching the Wolverines into the final game of the college basketball season for the first time since 1993. Back when most of them were infants.
When the game ended, guard Trey Burke sauntered toward the Michigan supporters, as he thumped his chest and fans threw seat cushions on the court. As Burke made his way back to the locker room, the same locker room where the assistant coach Bacari Alexander squeezed an orange into juice before the game, Burke yelled to no one in particular, "We're not done yet!"
Beilein walked in soon after. The room erupted.
Syracuse (30-10) had whittled a double-digit deficit to a point, 57-56, after forward James Southerland knocked down a 3-pointer, a rare basket on one of his worst shooting nights. Burke missed one of two free throws.
The Orange inbounded the ball with a chance to tie the game. They ran a play for Southerland, who was covered. Guard Brandon Triche took what Coach Jim Boeheim said later was his best and only option. He drove the right side of the lane.
Michigan forward Jordan Morgan slid in Triche's path. Morgan would later say he felt he had position. Triche would say he felt that Morgan did not. The officials agreed with Morgan and called a charge.
"I probably should have made a better decision," Triche said. "I probably should have pulled up."
The Orange had one final opportunity to tie. Again, they called a play for Southerland. Again, Michigan smothered him. Again, a Syracuse player drove (guard Trevor Cooney in this instance), and again, a Syracuse player missed. Morgan slammed home an exclamation point at the other end.
That was the pretty play, the one destined for the highlights. But the charge taken was a sequence that best embodied the Wolverines on Saturday — average on offense; resourceful at the end; if not a defensive juggernaut, then a pesky defensive team.
"At the end of the day, it wasn't offense," Burke said. "It was defense that allowed us to advance."
Early in the second half, Syracuse missed three consecutive shots from in close. Guard Michael Carter-Williams tried to throw the ball off an opponent and stepped out of bounds. Southerland clanged another jumper off the rim.
The sequence was indicative of the way the game unfolded, of Michigan's defensive prowess and Syracuse's offensive ineptitude. The Wolverines controlled the pace, sped the tempo, forced the Orange out of their comfort zone, in this case the 2-3 defense Syracuse made famous. Michigan was too athletic. Too fast. Too tough.
Mitch McGary always seemed to force his way into the thick of it. He presented Syracuse with a conundrum: how to defend a player with the bulk of a center, the size of a forward, the skills of a guard and the nimble feet of a ballerina. The answer for the Orange was not well, as it turned out.
In one second-half sequence, McGary tossed a no-look pass to forward Glenn Robinson III, who dunked the ball. On Michigan's next possession, McGary received a feed from Burke and jammed home his own slam. The Michigan student section erupted in celebration. The band played. The cheerleaders danced with yellow Michigan cones over their heads.
McGary finished with 10 points, 12 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 blocks. C. J. Fair kept Syracuse in the game. He basically was the Orange offense, recording 22 points.
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