clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Michigan Rising?

Juwan Howard is putting a great season together in Ann Arbor

By JD King

If you buy something from an SB Nation link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

Minnesota v Michigan
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN - JANUARY 06: Head coach Juwan Howard of the Michigan Wolverines is doing a brilliant job so far this season.
Photo by Nic Antaya/Getty Images

After they utterly destroyed Virginia, we talked about how good Gonzaga looks and speculated that they could go undefeated.

Gonzaga is a bit unusual in that their toughest games generally come early in the year. Conference play is dangerous of course and St. Mary’s and BYU are usually dangerous and you overlook Santa Clara at your peril - just ask UNC.

Still, the Zags have a reasonable shot at pulling it off...at least in the regular season.

Tournament play has a way of messing things up. We saw it in 1991 with UNLV and in 2015 with Kentucky.

At the beginning of the season a lot of people thought that it would come down to Gonzaga and Baylor and it still might. But we’d like to suggest another team that could derail Gonzaga, Baylor or both: Michigan.

If you missed it, Michigan put an unbelievable whipping on Wisconsin, featuring a 43-6 run.

That’s a level of dominance that you rarely see and against a Top Ten team?

The thing about the NCAA Tournament is that while you see upsets galore, and people think “oh, Team X is out, now no one can beat Team Y.”

Doesn’t work that way.

Some losses are shocking but the teams that are playing well and have a legitimate chance to advance are generally the teams that do.

So no matter who survives until the Final Four, they’ll all be playing well. And if Michigan keeps playing as well as they have, well, the Wolverines can beat anybody.

Our suggestion: if they’re not on your radar, they should be.

And one more thing: even though the NCAA always says they don’t try to arrange games for TV ratings, you can count on this: they’ll find a way to put Duke and Michigan in the same bracket so they can plug the Duke/Fab Five angle. Something like “from player to coach, Juwan Howard has pursued the Duke Blue Devils.”

More From Duke Basketball Report