CHICAGO − Aday Mara had no idea of the history Michigan basketball made in the Windy City.
The Wolverines surged past Alabama at United Center on Friday, March 27 for the program’s first Elite Eight berth since 2021. The win was No. 34 this season – one more than the 2017-18 team, the last U-M squad to reach the Final Four.
The winningest season in 109 seasons of maize-and-blue history. That’s worth celebrating, right?
“When we go to a game, we’re not worried about, oh, let’s win today, because it’s gonna be history,” Mara said. “We know that our goal is bigger than that; it’s winning a championship. But it’s always great to see that every game, if we win, we’re making history for this program.”
Friday brought another rumble through another NCAA round, in almost workmanlike fashion. Three March Madness games – halfway to the goal – and three double-digit wins. This one featured some individual history, too: Yaxel Lendeborg’s 23 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists made him the most recent player in the Sweet 16 (or later) with at least 20 points, 10 boards and seven helpers since 2003, when future Basketball Hall of Famers Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony.
Trey McKenney, a lifelong Michigander, put up 17 points for the Wolverines against the Crimson Tide. He, too, was unaware of U-M’s wins mark, till it came up in the locker room.
“I had no idea,” said the freshman who, this time last year, was getting ready for the McDonald’s All-American Game. “But to be able to do this with such a great team like this is really amazing. I’m just really blessed to be a part of a team like this, where everybody can shine any game, any moment.”
Michigan finished its latest demolition by beating Alabama at its own game. The 1-seed Wolverines made 13 3-point tries, one fewer than the 4-seed Crimson Tide – while taking 20 fewer attempts than Alabama.
The Wolverines dominated elsewhere, too – more points off turnovers (14-7), more rebounds (46-32), more bench points (33-6), more points in the paint (32-18), more fastbreak points (17-4) and more blocks (8-1, including two from Mara to reach 98, a U-M record in a single season).
Setting records is not new to this team.
But is the all-time wins record different?
It’s regular-season and postseason games. More importantly, while the Wolverines have played as many games as they could, per the schedule (they’ll still fall short of the program record there, of 41 set in that 2017-18 season) in reaching 34 victories … they have three more to go.
“We’re making history every single game,” Nimari Burnett said, eyeing a Final Four berth, a national semifinal win and, of course, cutting down the nets in Indianapolis on April 6. “We’re looking to make it 37.”
Tony Garcia is the Michigan 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 wins record only a stepping stone
Reporting by Tony Garcia, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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