Anyone thinking Michigan basketball couldn’t match its nigh-flawless performance from its Players Era Festival tournament opener should probably take a look at the box score from Michelob Ultra Arena on Tuesday, Nov. 25.
The Wolverines dominated Auburn – the team that knocked coach Dusty May’s group out of the 2025 NCAA Tournament in the Sweet 16 – by 30 points (102-72) to likely earn a spot in the tournament’s championship game on Wednesday. (U-M won its first two games by an average of 35 points, maxing out the tiebreaker’s limit of +20.)
Similar to Monday’s 40-point dismantling of San Diego State, No. 6 Michigan relied on a familiar formula – efficient shooting, locking up on defense and dominating down low and on the run – to wipe out No. 25 Auburn.
In every measurable way, U-M was exceptional. The Wolverines won the battle of rebounding (51-35), second-chance points (24-13), points in the paint (38-18), points via the fastbreak (29-3) and bench points (47-27).
For the second night in a row, the Wolverines won with a balanced attack and six players scoring in double figures. On Tuesday, it was Roddy Gayle Jr. and Yaxel Lendeborg leading with 17 points, Morez Johnson Jr. and Nimari Burnett scoring 15 apiece, Trey McKenney 11 and L.J. Cason with 10.
Michigan (6-0) blitzed Auburn almost from the jump, scoring 11 straight points after falling behind 2-0. The Tigers got within eight, 28-20, before U-M finished the half on a 31-11 onslaught.
Lendeborg and McKenney hit back-to-back 3-pointers – which set the tone for Michigan’s 14 3s, its most since the season opener against mid-major Oakland – before Burnett got an offensive rebound and putback. After Auburn scored four straight, Cason made a fastbreak layup, McKenney hit another 3, Lendeborg added a spinning layup as part of a three-point play, Gayle hit a layup and Will Tschetter made a pair of free throws, bringing the Wolverines to a doubled-up lead, 48-24.
The half could be best summed up by the final play when Lendeborg missed a 3, only for Cason to chase down the loose ball, slash awkwardly into the lane and finish an acrobatic layup as time expired.
The defense was also superb – Auburn had just three assists on 21 made baskets. U-M had 19 on 35 scores.
Based on its point differential Michigan appears likely to play in the the Players Era Festival championship game, against an opponent to be determined, on Wednesday (6:30 p.m. TNT).
“Our frontcourt is by far in the country,” Lendeborg told the TNT crew postgame. “We have a lot of different pieces that we can key in together and assert dominance.”
“From Day 1 in practice we just tried to play as fast as we could,” Lendeborg continued. “I feel like we got a lot more ways to go.”
Finding the range
One night after making 11 3-pointers vs. SDSU, the Wolverines shot 40% (14-for-35) beyond the arc against the Tigers.
Burnett got it going with a corner 3 on a swing pass from Lendeborg before Lendeborg hit one from the right wing on a kickout from Cason to go up, 21-10. Cadeau, Lendeborg and McKenney all made 3s in less than three minutes, and McKenney added two more during U-M’s massive run late in the first half.
Early in the second half, Michigan made 3s on three straight possessions, with Gayle sandwiching a pair of transition 3s around one from Lendeborg. Gayle’s second 3 came after Lendeborg got a rebound off a missed free throw, pushed the tempo in transition and fed a perfect cross-court chest pass.
The finishing touch was Winters Grady’s first 3 of the season, from the left corner to put U-M up, 100-65.
Size simply unfair
Aday Mara had to sit the final 11:47 of the first half in foul trouble and it didn’t particularly matter.
Michigan dominated inside, as it has done in seemingly every game this season. Four of U-M’s first six baskets were dunks or layups. The Wolverines went 19-for-30 on layups or dunks.
Auburn, meanwhile, struggled to convert its point-blank looks into efficient shots. The Wolverines’ size and length altered nearly every shot the Tigers got low, as Steven Pearl’s team made just 10 of 24 dunks and layups on the night.
Johnson most notably feasted low for the Wolverines, with all of his points coming in the lane or from the free throw line. Mara was mostly kept in check, but used his length, even with one arm hooked, to grab an offensive rebound and simply drop the ball in late in the second half.
The exclamation point was when redshirt freshman Oscar Goodman got a pass on the left wing, pump-faked, drove to the lane and threw down a poster dunk – the starters on the bench literally fell over in celebration.
Taking care of the ball
Michigan, which has struggled with giveaways in a season and change under May, had just two turnovers in the first half – one of which came when Cason simply lost the handle while pushing a fastbreak. The other came on U-M’s first possession of the game, when Mara was stripped fo the ball.
May’s group finished with nine turnovers, but even the second half performance, with seven giveaways (including a few by the far reserves), was acceptable. It was U-M’s second nigh-flawless performance in as many nights.
Tony Garcia is the Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan basketball annihilates No. 25 Auburn in Players Era Festival
Reporting by Tony Garcia, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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