Michigan basketball will open the NCAA tournament on Thursday as the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Region. The Wolverines are also the No. 3 overall seed in the entire tournament.
Michigan is one of the teams capable of winning the national championship. There are more than people realize, as any team with a top-40 defense and a top-25 offense, via Kenpom, has the tools to win it all, including at least five teams in the Wolverines region.
That shouldn't come as a surprise. Michigan will have to beat some great teams to advance to the Final Four.
The first objective is to get out of the first week. Michigan can't look ahead. The objective is to win three, four-team tournaments.
The NCAA tournament is a massive 68-team field. But, John Beilein used to stress thinking about each as a four-team tournament. Michigan needs to win three in a row to win the national championship.
Beilein's teams couldn't quite get there. We'll see if Dusty May's 2025-26 Michigan basketball team can. Before we look too far ahead, though, here's a look back at three moments that have defined this Michigan team heading into the NCAA tournament.
Dominating Gonzaga
After beating San Diego State by 40 points and the Auburn Tigers by 30, the Wolverines rolled past the 12th-ranked Gonzaga Bulldogs 101-61 in the Players Era championship game. Yaxel Lendeborg went off for 20 points and 11 rebounds. Michigan held the Zags to 0.74 points per possession.
It was the worst loss of Mark Few's career. It was also the first moment that Michigan fans started to realize that this team could do something special.
Winning in East Lansing
Last season, Michigan State dominated Michigan. They were better, stronger, and tougher. So, Dusty May addressed that by rebuilding his frontcourt in the offseason. He focused on defense and rebounding as much as anything. Morez Johnson and Aday Mara can score, too.
But not being pushed around on the offensive glass, and being able to protect the rim, is what was needed to beat Michigan State.
The Wolverines were soft in 2024-25. That's not the case this season, as they took every shot Michigan State had to offer, including some to the crown jewels, and still won by double digits, twice.
The win in the Breslin Center was the first in eight years. The last Michigan team to do that went on to play for the national championship.
Michigan basketball gets Illinois monkey of its back
Brad Underwood had flat-out owned Michigan. Juwan Howard never beat them once. Dusty May was 0-1 as the Wolverines' head coach going into that February game in Champaign.
If Michigan had lost at Illinois, or at Purdue, or at Michigan State, the Big Ten title race would have gotten much more interesting. Instead, the Wolverines just kept winning, and this season, they defeated the Fighting Illini for the first time since Beilein was the head coach.
Michigan also did it by double digits, leading to a 29-2 regular season with a 19-1 record in Big Ten play, as well as a perfect 10-0 record in Big Ten road games, something no other Big Ten basketball program has ever done.
If the Wolverines are going to reach their ultimate goal of cutting down the nets after the national title game, they need to channel their efforts from those three games, because that Michigan team, the only one playing on top of its game, is still the best team in college basketball.
Now, Michigan basketball has three weeks and three four-team tournaments to prove it.
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