The redemption song
ofJordan Morgan
Breakdown: 'M' vs. Louisville
ATLANTA -
et's crunch this remark-
able, ridiculous and
insane season down into
one moment. Let's condense it,
split away the narratives and
plays, and find the core and
the heart of why this Michigan
men's basketball team is playing
for a national championship on
Monday night.
It comes
in one of
the auxil-
iary locker
rooms in the
underbelly of r
the Georgia
Dome, away
from the EVERETT
court and COOK
hidden from
the cameras.
Just like they do after every
win, the Wolverines elect a play-
er to lead them in "The Victors."
It's selected by the players, not
the coaches or anyone else.
On Saturday, after Michigan's
61-56 win over Syracuse, the
man leading the song played five
minutes, didn't corral a single
rebound and scored just three
points. Seven other Wolverines
scored more than he did, and
he was the only player who
saw action that didn't record a
rebound.
What Jordan Morgan did
have was a pair of charges and
a dunk that sent the Wolverines
to their first National Champi-
onship game since 1993. For a
player who started 27 games this
year, but played a combined total
of one minute in the first two
rounds of the NCAA Tourna-
ment, it was a night of redemp-
tion.
With 19 seconds left and
Michigan clinging to a two
point lead, Morgan jumped from
one side of the key to the other,
throwing his body in the path of
Syracuse guard Brandon Triche,
who was barreling down the
lane, trying to tie the game.
The play sealed the win.
After the game, the players
said the charge would go down
as the biggest offensive foul in
the history of Michiganbasket-
ball.
The Wolverines have the
National Player of the Year and
more future NBA talent than
almost any other team in the
country, but take away the high-
lights and the hype, and a charge
- the actcof being voluntarily
run over - was celebrated more
than any other play.
"That's the definition of
our team, from a guy who was
starting and was first team All-
Defense, to not playing one min-
ute - (Morgan) just stayed with
it," said senior captain Josh Bar-
telstein. "He knew he was going
to get his moment, and when you
get your chance, you make the
most of it."
Added redshirt sophomore
Jon Horford: "I don't know if
the fans understand that was the
biggestcplay of the game."
Eighteen seconds later, junior
forward Tim Hardaway Jr.
almost fell out of bounds trying
to collect a rebound. The ball
got to Morgan, who was around
midcourt. He needed only one
dribble before taking off, jam-
ming Michigan's national title
berth in with two hands.
This is someone who didn't
play a single minute in Michi-
gan's win over Virginia Com-
monwealth in the second
round of the tournament. He
was visibly frustrated after the
game, visibly frustrated about
havingto take a backseat to the
emergence of freshman forward
See MORGAN, Page 2B
By DANIEL WASSERMAN
Daily Sports Editor
In week 10 of the season,
Michigan and Louisville were
each ranked in the AP Poll's top
three. Three weeks later, with
the Wolverines positioned atop
the polls, the Cardinals had fall-
en all the way to No. 12.
By time the NCAA Tourna-
ment kicked off two months later,
those roles were flipped, with
Louisville as the bracket's top
overall seed and Michigan as a
No. 4 seed, falling somewhere in
the No. 13-16 range. None of that
matters anymore, as the Wolver-
ines and Cardinals, the nation's
last two teams standing, will bat-
tle it out on Monday night for the
National Championship.
The Daily breaks down Mon-
day's matchups.
Point guard: Perhaps the only
point guard that has a real advan-
tage over sophomore Trey Burke,
Aaron Craft, willbe watching the
title game in Columbus, nearly
600 miles from Atlanta. But with
that being said, Louisville's Pey-
ton Siva is no slouch.
The senior is making his sec-
ond career Final Four appear-
ance, and despite sometimes
erratic decision making, he's
paced the Cardinals through a
grinding Big East season, leading
them to conference regular sea-
son and tournament crowns.
Burke, on the other hand,
displayed consistency like no
player anywhere in the country
on his way to being a consensus
National Player of the Year recip-
ient. But in the tournament, he's
looked less than stellar at times.
See BREAKDOWN, Page 3B
TERESAMATHEW/Daily
WINTER CLASSIC IN A2
The NHL lockout stalled plans for a
year, but Detroit and Toronto will face off
at the Big House on Jan. 1, 2014. Page 4B
FRESH OFF THE BENCH
Freshmen Caris LeVert and Spike
Albrecht carried Michigan through a
rough first half Saturday. Page 3B