Michigan Basketball: How the Wolverines reached the Final Four

LOS ANGELES, CA - MARCH 24: The Michigan Wolverines celebrates with the regional championship trophy after defeating the Florida State Seminoles in the 2018 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament West Regional Final at Staples Center on March 24, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. The Michigan Wolverines defeated the Florida State Seminoles 58-54. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) /

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NEW YORK, NY – MARCH 04: Jaaron Simmons /

How Michigan performed in both the regular-season and conference tournament

In the first couple of months of the season, we tend to get a feel for how good a team really is. The Wolverines had a couple of wins versus dome decent teams in Texas and UCLA in early December. But there was also the loss to LSU in the Maui Invitational, along with getting destroyed by North Carolina. The others were essentially “buy games” impacted by the unique Big Ten scheduling this year.

Once league play arrived, Michigan took care of business. They lost just one game at home in the regular season, to a top-3 Purdue squad. The last loss came on the road to Northwestern on February 6, before going on a long and current winning streak.

The Wolverines missed out on a double-bye, so they had to play in the second-round of the Big Ten Tournament. That nearly proved fatal, with them needing overtime to beat Iowa. The scare must have woken them up, winning by 19 points against Nebraska, before beating both Michigan State and Purdue to win their second title in a row. It wasn’t as dramatic as the year prior, but the result was the same nonetheless.

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