Michigan Basketball: Wolverines go from unwatchable to title contenders
By Brian Rosen
Six weeks ago, the Michigan Wolverines were unwatchable. They’re now two wins away from the Final Four.
The Michigan Basketball team has accomplished one of the most impressive mid-season turnarounds in recent history.
By now, odds are you’ve heard of the near-fatal plane crash this team was involved in the day before the Big Ten Tournament. Since then, the Wolverines have run the table in the Big Ten Tournament and now find themselves amongst the 16 squads remaining in the NCAA Tournament.
All this team has done is win the past two weeks over teams like Illinois, Purdue, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Oklahoma State, and Louisville.
Six weeks ago wins of this nature were far-fetched even to the most optimistic of Michigan basketball fans.
Unwatchable
This season got to the point where I wouldn’t watch Michigan basketball play unless I had absolutely nothing else on my schedule. If I had an assignment due the next day, I wouldn’t even bother multi-tasking.
Compare that to a couple years ago, when I found myself making time in the evenings to catch the Wolverines mid-week. Many Wolverine fans out there probably endured a similar change of events.
The talent was always there for this team. The aesthetically-pleasing style of play we’ve seen during this run verifies that but Michigan simply could not put it together.
The team was frustratingly inconsistent, maddeningly inconsistent even.
Watching the Wolverines play was just stressful.
Offensively, it seemed Michigan never had a plan. Far too often were five guys standing around not making things happen. Zak Irvin had lost his shooting stroke. Mo Wagner and D.J. Wilson would show spurts of stardom, but then disappear for games at a time. Random turnovers and lapses in communication were common.
Defensively, teams scored at will against the Wolverines. It was difficult for Michigan to establish leads because its defense had become so flawed.
86 points were allowed in a loss to 19-15 Iowa, and there was a near-loss at home to a Penn State team that finished 6-12 in conference play, 12-19 overall.
The final straw came in a 16 point loss to a mediocre Illinois team. A member of the Illini made comments referring to Michigan as a white-collar team that wasn’t tough on defense. After the embarrassing performance, the Wolverines had two options: continue their downward spiral, or prove that opinion wrong on the court.
Michigan basketball spent the next couple weeks sporting its best Jekyll and Hyde impression. A tight win against Nebraska was followed by a tight loss to Wisconsin.
A blowout win over Indiana was followed by two suspect losses to Michigan State and Ohio State.
Since then, the Wolverines turned on the jets and haven’t slowed down.