And we are back, folks, here on the Michigan Insider on the Big 1050WTCA, online at the big 1050.com. Joining us to see us on Mondays and 9 o'clock hour to talk all things Michigan from M Live. Sam Jane is with us. Sam. Good morning. How are you? Doing all right, Sam. You know, feeling a little tanner now that I'm back from a trip, but got to watch some basketball over the weekend.

So sun and basketball and March Madness, not a bad combination.

Excited to talk to Michigan hoops with you today.

Yeah, man. And, of course, people predicted that Michigan would make it through.

You know, ones don't lose to 16s.

And, of course, Michigan is one of the favorites to win this thing.

But, you know, significant moments in both games, the switch that Michigan was able to flip in the second half versus Howard.

A lot of it boiled down to changing the matchup for a dying guys fighting harder through screens and whatnot.

And then that translating to the next game, Scott, I mean, Sam, where we saw, I think, Michigan turning its best performance since that Big Ten championship against, uh, Illinois had been some time since we see

Michigan play on that level.

Yeah, definitely.

It felt, um, uh, a very apt comparison I was thinking about was,

you remember that 2023 Michigan football team.

I can't remember who it was, but someone compared them to a boa constrictor, right? Like they just kind of squeezed the life out of you. And I think we saw that in both Michigan games this weekend, you know, the first half, you start out a little slow, opponent hits a few threes, and then you really kind of take the life out of them there in the second half. I thought St. Louis played probably one of the best games they could have, and they're a really good team. It didn't ultimately matter, because like you said, I think that was kind of the Michigan, that when it's clicking like that on all cylinders, I'm not sure there's a team in the country that can beat them. When Yaxel's playing like that, when guys are hitting shots, Namari, Caddo played really well.

You know, Marr's leading kind of the offense.

And Mores's, I thought Mores played his best game that he's played in a minute, too.

It was just a really, really complete effort there against a very high quality opponent.

Yeah, it's a great point, that one that hasn't been made this morning.

Yeah, St. Louis played that, like, they didn't play poorly.

Yeah, did Robbie Avalet shoot poorly?

Yeah, but that's because Michigan's defense was so imposing.

He wasn't just out of throwing up junk. And there comes a point where you're an

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