The Michigan basketball team, winners of four straight games and five of their last six is currently ranked 24th in the country (but moving up soon). The Wolverines have thrived in close games, winning their last four by four or fewer points.
In the grand scheme of the landscape of college basketball, the Wolverines could be considered a viable team to make a run during March Madness. But should Michigan basketball fans hold onto that semblance of hope?
Can Michigan basketball make an NCAA tournament run?
After what was a tumultuous, for lack of a better word, time under Juwan Howard, the Michigan Wolverines have always been a team of coming close but not close enough. In hiring Howard, the Wolverine brass thought that some of the allure and excitement from the yester years of the Fab Five would illuminate the team once again.
It started well enough but ended with a sour taste in the minds of most fans. Coming into 2024-25, Michigan basketball was coming off a season of 8-24 and a last-place finish in the Big Ten Conference, their worst season since 1960. Hiring Dusty May, before this season, brought some much-needed excitement. Coming off a triumphant season with Florida Atlantic, May wanted to make the Wolverines watchable and enjoyable. Then focus on winning championships.
May has accomplished some of his goal, already. The Wolverines have become watchable once again. Currently, third in the Big Ten Conference and competitive, a nod once again, to their ability to win close games.
Now, can the Wolverines be a team that has a run in the tournament and the Final Four? It seems like distant years since Michigan basketball was competing in the Final Four and moments from a chance at a national championship.
Truthfully, it's only been since 2019. Six years. But since then, the Michigan hockey team has been consistent and in the Frozen Four. Jim Harbaugh brought a national championship to his alma mater and won, what is arguably, the most important game in college football, besides the National Championship, against Ohio State. More than once.
The Michigan basketball team has fallen behind the mark. Even the Detroit Lions, once a franchise, mired in pain and tribulations, have had one of the biggest turnarounds in the NFL over the past few years. And let's not forget about the Detroit Tigers or how somehow, even in a transitional year, the Michigan football beat Ohio State and then Alabama in their bowl game. Most fans would call that a successful season. With all those successes, the basketball team had become an afterthought.
Dusty May has achieved the watchable part of his original plan, firstly. The Wolverines are watchable again. Now, May has to take the steps to fulfill the rest of his plan. There is no real cut favorite to win the national championship. Every team in the Top 25 has losses, even Auburn who is ranked number one.
Every year, during March Madness, a team rises from seemingly out of nowhere and makes an improbable run. Could the Wolverines be May's Florida Atlantic of this season? Only time will tell. But ask any Michigan basketball fan, being relevant again is a nice sentiment but winning is the greatest sentiment of all.