Wolverines Report: Getting Inside

The destination was always the same. But for a good portion of the season there was a lot of doubt about whether or not the Wolverines would get there.

Michigan, the Big Ten's youngest team and a team with no seniors and no fifth year players, hit a mid-season swoon and lost six straight, and was sitting at 11-9 overall, and 1-6 in the Big Ten. The talk about putting the program back on the map and reaching the NCAA Tournament was muted, if not silent.

But then a somewhat unanticipated transformation took place. The Wolverines snapped out of their funk, and ended that six-game losing streak with wins in five of their next six games. They closed the regular season with eight wins in their final 11 games.

Junior forward Zack Novak, the elder statesman of this team, said that since head coach John Beilein arrived in Ann Arbor, the focus has been on returning to the NCAA Tournament.

"When coach first got here, that was one of our main goals," Novak said. "We wanted to get Michigan basketball going back in the right direction."

Freshman forward Jordan Morgan said the situation was pretty desperate when the Wolverines were in the throes of that losing streak. "At that point, we were almost like we had to win the Big Ten tournament to even have a chance to get to the NCAA tournament," Morgan said.

The Wolverines put an exclamation point on the end of their season with a win over rival Michigan State that gave Michigan a season sweep of the Spartans. Michigan moves into the conference tournament as arguably the hottest team in the Big Ten.

"I think everyone knows it is a big deal," freshman forward Jon Horford said, "but I don't think everyone knows just how big of a deal this is."

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