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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WICHITA, KS – MARCH 15: Jon Teske /

The lowest point of the season for Michigan

Michigan never lost back-to-back games this season, so there wasn’t a point this year where the team was in dire straights. But there was a period of time where a couple of bounces of the ball would have changed the outlook for this team.

Right in the middle of Big Ten play, the Wolverines had lost four out of nine games, including a couple of close ones to the Purdue Boilermakers. The other two losses came to Nebraska and Northwestern, where they scored just 52 points both times.

Last season, the offense wasn’t much of an issue. This season though there were times where it looked like the Wolverines reached their peak as a team, thanks to a limited offense.

There also was another worry – the conference itself. The Big Ten was down as a league overall, thanks to poor seasons from teams such as Iowa, Northwestern, Wisconsin, and Indiana rebuilding. Only four teams were going to get bids in Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State and Purdue.

By the Northwestern game, the Wolverines had just one win over a sure-fire tournament team. And while an at-large bid wasn’t in question, the team had to have been worried that they would get a bad seed in March.

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