'Roddy! Roddy! Roddy!' Wolverines Saluted Gayle, Jr., After Scoring 26 Off Bench to Spark Victory

Michigan reaches Sweet 16 as Gayle puts on show against Texas A&M: 'I was going to give my mind, body and soul to this team.'

Photo Courtesy of University of Michigan Photography

Roddy Gayle, Jr., here driving past Purdue Big Ten Player of the Year Braden Smith, scored 14 points in a win over the Boilermakers.

By Steve Kornacki

The Wolverines shouted his name in the post-game locker room at the Ball Center in Denver: “RODDY! RODDY! RODDY!”

What Roddy Gayle, Jr. did on Saturday was put on a show of great purpose, confidence and flair.

He came off the bench to score 21 of his game-high 26 points in the final 15 minutes of No. 5 seed Michigan’s 91-79 win over No. 4 seed Texas A&M.

“You’ve got to bring your best in March,” Gayle told Brian Boesch on the Michigan Radio Network. “I was going to give my mind, body and soul to this team.”

He was as responsible as anyone for the Wolverines (27-9) advancing to a Sweet 16 date with No. 1 overall seed Auburn Friday in Atlanta. Michigan was down by 10 points with 13 minutes left – staying alive but running out of time.

Then Gayle scored 10 points in just 2:40 with a pair of three-pointers and makes on all four free throw attempts. His fourth free throw in that stretch gave his team a 71-70 lead with 6:08 remaining, and the Wolverines didn’t let the spirited Aggies back into this one.

Michigan closed out the game on a 41-19 run in the final 13:47 – beginning with one of the four treys Gayle made on six attempts from behind the arc. Center Vlad Goldin (23 points, 12 rebounds) and power forward Danny Wolf (14 points, 9 rebounds and 4 assists) also were huge in turning the tide.

Gayle told Boesch afterward that Wolverine coach Dusty May wrote this on a grease board during a second-half timeout: “DESPERATION.”

And the whole team got the message. I loved the strong play of L.J. Cason with his 11 points, 3 assists and 2 rebounds. This freshman from Lakeland, Fla., isn’t getting the headlines. But he’s setting a tone that the Wolverines don’t back down – even when they’re down by 10.

If I had told you starting guards Tre Donaldson, Jr., Rubin Jones and Nimari Burnett would combine for 15 points in this one, what would have said? Likely that Michigan got waxed.

And if I told you Gayle and Cason would combine for 37 points, you wouldn’t have believed it. But that’s what happened as Michigan’s guards combined to score 52 and provide the balance its “Area 50-1” seven-footers needed to come back and then destroy.

You can argue that Donaldson’s wild, driving bucket – thrown up as sort of an under-handed hook shot – was the biggest of the game. It gave Michigan an 84-79 lead with 59 seconds remaining.

And, so, the Wolverines are headed to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2022, when it made the last of five consecutive trips to that sweet spot.

“It’s all I dreamed of as a kid,” said Gayle, who got emotional at that point.

It’s been a season of highs and lows for Gayle, a junior transfer from the unlikely outpost of Ohio State -- where he scored a career-high 32 against Nebraska on Jan. 23, 2024 and averaged 13.5 last season.

The Niagara, NY. native was Michigan’s leading scorer in three of the first six games, but didn’t achieve that accomplishment again until Saturday. His season-high had been 20 against Virginia Tech back on Nov. 25.

Gayle had been a starter until coming off the bench in 10 of the last 14 games. Jones, a defensive whiz who also hits clutch buckets, has taken his place as a starter. Gayle had combined to score 12 points in three games when sent to the bench six games ago.

Still, he’s continued getting major playing time in the rotation. The opportunity to achieve something like he did in this one exists in every game for a player with a sweet shooting stroke and 40-inch vertical hops.

You sensed the confidence jolt Gayle received late in the first half after scoring 5 points in 47 seconds with a two-handed slam with three defenders nearby and a three-point swish. He did the swan motion with his right arm after that bomb hit the twine, and was barking at the Texas A&M players, feeling good.

Both of those buckets came on sharp passes from Wolf – who plays point center sometimes.

“Roddy’s one hell of a player,” Wolf said. “We see that all the time in practice. And when we needed him to be the best Roddy Gayle today, we got the best Roddy Gayle.”

No doubt about that.

“We’re going into something very scary,” Gayle told CBS reporter Dana Jacobson on the court afterward.

Yes, they are.

But they are doing so with a “very scary” team that can’t be counted out. These Wolverines never say die, and have won five games in nine days to take the Big Ten Tournament with the first three and punch their tickets to continued dreams with these last two victories.

Somebody has been stepping up when a hero is needed most, and the guy raising his hand highest in this one was Roddy Gayle, Jr.