Big Ten NCAA Tournament Success Puts Michigan Season in Perspective

Mar 12, 2015; Chicago, IL, USA; Michigan Wolverines guard Spike Albrecht (2) celebrates with teammates Max Bielfeldt (44) , Zak Irvin (21) and Kameron Chatman (3) after a basket against the Illinois Fighting Illini during the second half in the second round of the Big Ten Conference Tournament at United Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports

One thing the NCAA Tournament has taught us this year is that the Big Ten is currently the best conference in college basketball. Seven Big Ten teams made the NCAA Tournament and five of those seven won at least one game. Wisconsin and Michigan State, who met in the Big Ten Tournament title game a few weeks ago, are both in the Final Four. Looking back at Michigan’s season, 16-16 doesn’t look so bad under the circumstances.

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Michigan’s preseason expectations were set a little too high after the team went to the National Title game in 2013 and the Elite Eight in 2014. They simply lost too much talent from last season’s team. They lost a lottery pick in Nik Stauskas, a first round pick in Mitch McGary (even though he was injured most of last year), a second round pick in GRIII, a solid starter in Jordan Morgan, and their top big off the bench in Jon Horford. To add to those losses Michigan’s best returning player, Caris Levert, missed the second half of this season due to injury. Not to mention starting point guard Derrick Walton missing double digit games at the end of the year.

Even with all of those losses this young Michigan team never quit. Half of their rotation after the injuries was made up of freshmen, and most of them weren’t very highly recruited. They still continued to fight and gave two of the current Final Four teams a run for their money this season. In a home game against Wisconsin, Michigan took the Badgers to OT and nearly pulled off the upset even without Caris Levert. In a game in East Lansing against MSU, with both Levert and Walton out, they took the Spartans to OT after narrowly missing a regulation victory. They even had a big home win over a tournament team in OSU and had another close contest in the Big Ten Tournament with Wisconsin.

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Michigan didn’t make any post season tournaments, but this was still one of John Beilein’s best coaching jobs. He took a young, injury riddled team and got the most out of them. Next year will be a big season for Michigan basketball and if the past is any indication, they should be vastly improved. The Big Ten won’t be quite as good next season, but it is always a tough conference and the competition from this year will only make Michigan better moving forward. Next year will certainly be fun and interesting to watch.