Michigan Beats Saint Louis, What Fans, Experts Said About Wolverines' March Madness Title Hopes

Michigan is headed to the Sweet 16 after a 95-72 victory over Saint Louis in the second round of the NCAA tournament on Saturday.

The Wolverines' offense has been rolling through the first two rounds. They put up 101 against Howard on Thursday, marking their first tournament game hitting the century mark since 1992.

Saint Louis Billikens-Michigan Wolverines Highlights

01:59

Despite the lopsided final score, this game was close for awhile. Robbie Avila's three with 15:50 remaining in the second half got Saint Louis within four at 57-53.

Michigan at one point went on a 17-5 run midway through the second half to put the game away.

One day after being named a semifinalist for the Naismith Player of the Year award, Yaxel Lendeborg proved why he belongs on the list with 25 points on 9-of-13 shooting from the field.

All five Michigan starters scored in double-figures. The team shot 56 percent overall and 48 percent from three, with 20 assists on 34 made field goals.

When you put it all together, the response from fans and analysts is a strong belief in the Wolverines having all the pieces necessary to make a deep run in this tournament.

Saturday's victory was the 33rd of the season the Wolverines, tying the single-season program record previously set in 2017-18. That team made it to the national title game before losing to Villanova.

Head coach Dusty May has done an incredible job of turning this program around in just two seasons. His first season saw a 19-win improvement from 2023-24 (8-24) that resulted in Juwan Howard getting fired.

The 2024-25 team advanced to the Sweet 16 before losing to Auburn. This year's squad can improve on that with one more win next week, but they have much bigger aspirations than that after a stellar start to the tournament.

Next up for Michigan will be the winner of Sunday's matchup between Texas Tech and Alabama.