The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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APRIL 2026 ❱ THE WOLVERINE 11 ❱ INSIDE MICHIGAN ATHLETICS Michigan Has A Great Shot, But Take The Field By Chris Balas For a good portion of this season, some wondered if Michigan might go undefeated — that's how good the Wolverines were in the early going. Wisconsin burst that bubble with a stunning win in Ann Arbor Jan. 10, making 15 triples in an outstanding offen- sive performance, and Duke then took the No. 1 ranking from Michigan with a 68-63 win Feb. 21 in Washington, D.C. Other than that, very few of U-M's games were even close. The Wolverines would have won the Big Ten outright even if you counted single-digit conference wins as losses. That's how dominant they were. And yet, if you look at the analytics sites, U-M still has less than a 20 percent chance of winning it all (KenPom.com, for ex- ample). A few things, here — it's often not the "best" team that wins it (some would say "rarely"), but the hottest team, and it's all about matchups. Run into a hot team or a team that's a tough draw, and you could have trouble. We're not saying Michigan has no shot. In fact, these Wolverines probably have as good a chance as anyone, favored to win it right next to Duke and Arizona. But to bet on it we'd need better than 50 percent odds, and we're not there, even with the way they played down the stretch. This Is Michigan's Time By Clayton Sayfie On March 3, ESPN released an article listing the 334 teams with "no clear path" to winning the national title, the 18 "near-misses" and the eight that "could win it all." Michigan, of course, was firmly in that latter group, and coming off its win at Illinois Feb. 27 was the betting favorite to win the national championship at +375. Those odds mean the Wolverines have just better than a 25 percent chance to cut down the nets April 6 in Indianapolis, so we understand we're going out on a limb here. There's a cluster of teams at the top in U-M, Arizona, Duke, UConn and Florida, but we agree with Vegas that the Wolverines are the best of the crop, despite losing to the Blue Devils Feb. 21. In the 68-63 loss to Duke, Michigan shot 6-of-26 from three-point distance, got a bunch of bad breaks and was uncharacteristically poor on the defensive glass and getting loose balls. Still, the Wolverines lost by only five on a neutral floor against a fellow No. 1 seed. This is the year Michigan will get it done, securing its first title since 1989. The Wolverines have depth (though less of it without sophomore guard L.J. Cason), a front line that's hard to match up with and enough shooting and intangibles to win every which way. Playing in the Midwest region — which is almost a lock at this point — will be beneficial, too, with first- and second-round games in either Buffalo or Philadelphia, the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight in Chicago and Final Four in Indianapolis. It should be a fun ride for the Wolverine faithful. ❱ POINT ❙ COUNTERPOINT ❰ WILL MICHIGAN BASKETBALL WIN IT ALL? Subscribe to our YouTube channel for live podcasts, content from our staff, Michigan Football, recruiting and more! youtube.com/@TheWolverineVideo TheWolverine.com YouTube channel is your place for the best Michigan conversations on the web. If you like reading The Wolverine and TheWolverine.com, then you'll love listening to our staff talk about Michigan football, basketball and recruiting. We broadcast four days a week during the football season and three days a week during the offseason. The The WOLVERINE WOLVERINE Show Show on