{"id":228047,"date":"2026-03-31T04:29:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/228047\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:29:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:29:07","slug":"texas-defensive-prowess-provides-recipe-for-success-in-elite-eight-takedown-of-michigan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/228047\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas’ defensive prowess provides recipe for success in Elite Eight takedown of Michigan"},"content":{"rendered":"

FORT WORTH \u2014\u00a0Texas<\/a> came out and punched Michigan in the mouth with its offense, making its first nine shots and 11 of its first 12 to take a 22-9 lead at the end of the first quarter.<\/p>\n

But what really suffocated the Wolverines in the Longhorns\u2019 77-41 win in the Elite Eight<\/a> Monday night was their defense.<\/p>\n

Vic Schaefer\u2019s teams<\/a> are known for their defensive prowess. Michigan knew that entering Monday\u2019s game at Dickies Arena. As much as Michigan could prepare over two days since its last game, it never could\u2019ve been enough for the defensive performance Texas had.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think our defense just gets us going,\u201d Texas point guard Rori Harmon said. \u201cI think they had two points for quite some time in the first quarter. All the other offensive stuff, that stuff will come. Michigan\u2019s a great team that knows how to score the ball, so we need[ed] to play some defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sports Roundup<\/p>\n

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Texas held Michigan to just 22.8% shooting and 13.3% from 3-point range. The Wolverines\u2019 41 points were their fewest in a game this season.<\/p>\n

Michigan, for long stretches of play, looked like a team incapable of scoring. That couldn\u2019t be further from the truth for this Wolverines team that ranks top 10 in the nation in scoring and averages 83.5 points per game.<\/p>\n

But Monday in Fort Worth, they didn\u2019t even reach half of their season average.<\/p>\n

Guard Olivia Olson, who averages 19.2 points per game, was held to 11. Guard Syla Swords, who averages 14.8 points, scored just eight.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe couldn’t initiate offense,\u201d Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico said. \u201cThey were in our faces. That was pressure that we haven’t faced all year long. Then when we were able to break it, we couldn’t get our shots to fall, so then we got tighter and tighter.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Longhorns forced 15 turnovers and scored 19 points off them. Possibly even more significant was their battle on the boards, with Texas winning 49-32 overall and 17-11 on the offensive glass.<\/p>\n

Ask the Longhorns players what allowed for that success \u2014 they look to a set of players who didn\u2019t even take the court Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cHuge credit to our men’s practice squad,\u201d Texas forward Justice Carlton said. \u201cIt’s hard \u2014 we have Sam out there, who is our 6-7 post player, and it doesn’t matter how tall the post player is on the other team. We always have to guard him.\u201d<\/p>\n

That defensive identity that lifted the Longhorns back to the Final Four for the second straight year<\/a> makes Texas a tough out.<\/p>\n

Michigan learned that the hard way.<\/p>\n

Find more Texas coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT WORTH \u2014\u00a0Texas came out and punched Michigan in the mouth with its offense, making its first nine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,537,28,88147,88146,88145],"class_list":["post-228047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-longhorns","tag-texas-news","tag-tp-march-madness","tag-tp-texas-longhorns","tag-tp-colleges"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}