Los Angeles — Before his team took the stage — and before John Beilein climbed the ladder to snip down the nets, with Michigan bound for the Final Four once more — the Wolverines coach first turned and shared a hug with his bosses.
There was Warde Manuel, his athletic director, and Mark Schlissel, the university president. All of them wore big grins, and Schlissel, who wasn’t around the last time Michigan’s basketball team made it this far in 2013, already was wearing some fresh Final Four memorabilia — “Turns out that presidents get hats!” — amid a sea of maize-and-blue confetti.