Life in Ann Arbor is sweet … as in Sweet 16. Shrug that off if you want, Michigan fan. But you shouldn’t.
The Wolverines’ 64-49 win over Florida makes it three straight Sweet 16s for John Beilein teams. Five of the last seven years, they’ve gotten at least that far. For a program wandering in the wilderness for a decade before Beilein showed up, that’s sweeter than Mrs. Butterworths poured on Captain Crunch.
U-M players acknowledged it, although they’ve got bigger bites to take.
“It means a lot,” junior point guard Zavier Simpson stressed of the most recent advance. “Right now, we’re going to embrace this win, embrace every second of the NCAA, because March Madness is tremendous. We’re going to embrace this, go back to the drawing board on Monday, and hopefully advance to the Elite Eight.”
Come on, you might be tempted to say. The Sweet 16 is great and all. Three in a row sounds good. But we’re thinking about a deep run, 2013 or 2018 style.
Guess what? You can’t get there without getting here. If you take it for granted, you’re no Michigan basketball history buff.
