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Mar 27, 2026; Chicago, IL, USA; Michigan Wolverines forward Yaxel Lendeborg (23) looks on in the second half against the Alabama Crimson Tide during a Sweet Sixteen game of the Midwest Regional of the men's 2026 NCAA Tournament at United Center. Mandatory Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images | Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images
The 1-seed Michigan Wolverines beat the 4-seed Alabama Crimson Tide, 90-77, in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament on Friday night in Chicago. It was a tale of two halves, with pace and speed controlling the first half, while a slower-tempo controlling the second.
Here are five takeaways from the game.
Yaxel Lendeborg has a legacy game
This one isn’t up for debate — Lendeborg was the best player on the floor tonight, and it wasn’t particularly close. He finished with 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting, including 4-of-5 from three, with 11 rebounds, 7 assists and two steals. In the first half, he single-handedly kept Michigan alive – seven of the team’s first nine points came from him, he finished 4-for-4 from the field in the first 20 minutes and he was the one player who matched Alabama’s pace.
In the second half, he simply took over. He scored or assisted on Michigan’s first seven points out of the break, and his back-to-back threes to open the half swung the game’s momentum entirely. When Michigan needed a bucket, they went to Lendeborg. He also was instrumental on the glass, securing seven second half rebounds, and he was a plus-20. When Alabama tried to fight back, Lendeborg answered. This is the kind of performance you circle when you talk about a player’s tournament legacy.
Alabama controlled the first-half pace
The most telling first-half statistic was that Alabama led 49-47 despite shooting just 39 percent from the field and 37 percent from three. Despite trailing Michigan in shooting percentage, the Tide were a perfect 10-for-10 from the free throw line, pulled down seven offensive rebounds in the half and exploited Michigan’s six turnovers in the first eleven minutes. Bama set a blistering pace – at one point they were 7-of-16 from three before the 15-minute mark – and Michigan played right into it.
The Wolverines’ late-half drought, going scoreless over the final two-and-a-half minutes while surrendering an 8-0 run, turned what should have been a halftime lead into a two-point deficit. Alabama won the first half without winning the shooting battle, showing that its pace could win this game.
The Michigan bench stepped up in a big way
Michigan’s bench outscored Alabama’s bench 33-6, and the stretch that broke the game open was almost entirely bench-driven. Down the stretch of the first half, after Michigan’s starting five had gone cold, it was Roddy Gayle and Trey McKenney who sparked a 14-3 run. McKenney drained back-to-back threes, Gayle hit two of his own in a short span and he converted an and-one at the start of the second half that pushed the lead to double digits.
When the Tide tried keeping it close in the second half, the bench continued to dominate, and McKenney and Gayle went back-to-back again to push the Michigan lead to 13. Gayle finished with 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting (3-of-4 from three), and McKenney had 17 on 5-of-7 with 3 threes of his own. The Wolverines got elite production from its two bench guards, and Alabama simply had no answer.
Mara, Johnson have a game to forget
Michigan’s starting frontcourt of Aday Mara and Morez Johnson Jr. combined to go 7-of-18 from the field for 15 points. Johnson was 3-of-10 (all two-pointers) with two turnovers, while Mara was 4-of-8 with two turnovers of his own.
The front court’s inability to score or protect the ball in the half court is a big reason Michigan fell behind in the first half. Johnson had two costly first-half turnovers and struggled to make layups all night long. Mara was repeatedly foul-prone, which fed Alabama’s perfect free throw performance. The only reason this didn’t cost Michigan the game was that Lendeborg did enough damage to compensate. Michigan will undoubtedly need more out of Mara and Johnson moving forward.
Alabama’s shots just weren’t falling in the second half
Alabama came out of halftime ice cold from three and never recovered. After hitting eight three-pointers and shooting 37 percent from deep in the first half, Bama’s shooters went quiet for most of the second. The Tide shot 5-for-23 through the second half, failing to make a single three in the first eight minutes of the period. Outside of Labaron Philon’s three threes, Alabama couldn’t hit anything from beyond the arc.
Meanwhile, Michigan prioritized getting down low and stacking twos, and it grew its lead to double digits and never looked back.
For a team that lives and dies by the deep ball, going cold from three in the second half is a death sentence against a Michigan team that was clicking offensively. Alabama finished 14-of-47 from three for the game (30 percent), and the second-half drought is what sealed it. With Lendeborg and the Michigan bench on fire, Alabama needed to keep the heat on from the perimeter, and they simply couldn’t.
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