2. Michigan (18-1)
After brilliant work for most of the season, the Wolverines lost that odd game at home against Wisconsin and really made us question this team. Michigan made a habit out of blowing teams out throughout conference play and asserted themselves perhaps as the top national contender. Now a few weeks further into Big Ten play, have they cemented that status once again?
Tuesday featured a nice performance, as the Wolverines won 86-72 at home over Indiana. Elliot Cadeau stood out with 19 points while Yaxel Lendeborg added 15 points and 7 rebounds against the Hoosiers. The action on Friday was a much closer call, but Michigan used a strong push in the final minutes to pull away 74-62 against Ohio State. Lendeborg put up 18 points and 9 rebounds while Morez Johnson Jr. added 12 points and 7 rebounds to anchor another conference win.
Michigan survived another day when the outside shooting wasn’t great and used that late push to make it another convincing win. They’ve suddenly won four straight since that disaster against the Badgers and all four have been by double figures, pushing the Wolverines up to 8-1 in the league. We’ve seen incredible work out of the Wolverines but they’re heading into one of their toughest weeks yet, playing Nebraska and Michigan State in the next seven days.