The Wolverine

April 2013

The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports

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By John Borton M ost Michigan basketball fans would have readily agreed to this deal in mid-October: enter the NCAA Tournament with 26 wins and a No. 4 seed, after experiencing a chance to win a share of the Big Ten championship with a five-point lead over Indiana in the final minute of the last regular-season game. So why were those same fans experiencing dancing anxiety on the eve of the big one? Stumbles on the way to the dance floor don't promote swagger. So when the Wolverines agonizingly saw that lead over the Hoosiers evaporate — and a Big Ten title team that scored more points in the second half against the Wolverines than it did in seven games this season. "We'll fix it the best we can. We have been trying all year long. "There's a process that we all have to go through to get better at it, and hopefully we can shore up enough to continue playing for a long time." The NCAA Tournament represented the difference between an enjoyable year, filled with a prideengendering rise to No. 1 in the rankings, and a genuinely special one on the bottom line. The national stage beckoned and, even with admitted issues, the Wolverines spoke defiantly about their opportunity. "My enthusiasm is high," Michigan assistant coach Bacari Alexander Assistant coach Bacari Alexander "Teams are in trouble by playing us as well, in the sense that they haven't seen our players, our scheme, our methodology, which is very tough to defend against. When you get in that NCAA Tournament, anything can happen." with it — it stung like a hatful of hornets. When Michigan surrendered 51 second-half points to an offensively challenged Wisconsin team to bow out of the Big Ten Tournament in the quarterfinals, it raised old questions about defensive acuity and grit. It even left the head coach hoping, rather than assuring, the deficits of a young lineup could be patched enough to allow survival in the annual college basketball crucible. "We've really got to grow defensively," Beilein said after a 68-59 Big Ten Tournament ouster against a insisted. "I think we've got the best point guard in the country. We've got one of the best shooting guards in Tim Hardaway. We've got a talented forward in Glenn Robinson. There's a three-headed monster at the center spot. "It's the most exciting part of the year. I would be remiss if I didn't say we're playing for a national championship now. You're talking about winning six games on the biggest stage in college basketball. That's not only going to be energizing to our fellas, if you get a good draw, you

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