LOS ANGELES — Who says football and basketball players don’t play nice together.
All the way across the country back home in Ann Arbor, the true kings of Michigan’s campus, the football team, watched with a sense of wonderment as their basketball brethren ran Texas A&M off the floor Thursday.
When Michigan conducted its first spring football practice of the year Friday, coaches and players alike lauded the basketball team and expressed great interest in Saturday’s regional final against Florida State.
WATCH: David Briggs and Kyle Rowland discuss Michigan’s regional final matchup with Florida State
“They were beasts,” Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh told a group of reporters at Schembechler Hall, a smaller horde than inside the basketball team’s locker room at Staples Center. “I don't think I’m going too far out on a limb here, but the way the team played the other night, they could have beat the Los Angeles Lakers.”
Michigan is one of the rare schools in college athletics that has routine success on the football field and basketball court. Three Elite Eight appearances in the past six seasons has trumped football success, which has gone missing over the past decade.
Significant expectations highlight the coming football season, and the pressure has only been dialed up with the basketball team’s late-season surge. The program’s coexistence is a normal relationship at UM. The basketball team was even tasked with cleaning up a football mess.
“They’ve got to get revenge for beating us,” linebacker Mike McCray said, referencing Florida State’s win over Michigan in the 2016 Orange Bowl.
McCray, who was taking part in Michigan’s Pro Day, hails from Dayton, the same city as graduate transfer guard Jaaron Simmons, who is McCray’s God brother. During the Houston game, McCray was in a nervous fit watching the final minutes.
When Houston’s Devin Davis missed the second of his two free throws with 3.6 seconds left, McCray tweeted, “Be Great!”
What ensued over the next couple minutes in McCray’s apartment, where his fiancee and dog were sleeping, wasn’t dissimilar from the scene at Intrust Bank Arena in Wichita, Kan. Complete pandemonium is one way to describe it.
“I jumped up and was screaming,” McCray said. “My dog jumped up barking. My fiancee woke up scared thinking something had happened. It was crazy.”
Former Houston and Michigan quarterback John O’Korn may have been more on edge than some of the basketball players — he predicted the Cougars would have no chance against UM. O’Korn’s trash talk was all over social media. When Jordan Poole hit the game-winning buzzer-beating 3, O’Korn texted his congratulations and thanked him.
“I never would have lived that down,” O’Korn said.
When Harbaugh met with the media Friday, he told them he was rejuvenated after a sometimes tumultuous offseason. With the sun shining outside, the football coach beamed about his basketball counterpart.
“So exciting,” Harbaugh said. “There’s great inspiration there. It looked like we were playing with seven players. I don’t know much about basketball, but it just had that feel. I’m so happy for coach Beilein, his staff, his team.”
Contact Kyle Rowland at [email protected], 419-724-6110 or on Twitter @KyleRowland.