It has only been eight games. Don’t get carried away, you say?

I’m not listening. Is there another team out there other than North Carolina (because they haven’t had one game that I’d so much as call a game yet) with a more impressive resume so far this season? Two wins over top five teams(at the time of the games) is something that no other team can match at this point. Maybe some teams haven’t been given the opportunity. But we can’t mess around with what if’s.

In John Beilein’s second year at the helm, his team has made drastic improvements, both individually and as a unit. Michigan has knocked off two of the super-giants in college basketball (Duke and UCLA) and its losses are quite impressive:  Duke (currently the seventh-ranked team in the country after Michigan defeated them the second time) and Maryland by five points in College Park (where the Terps are extremely difficult to beat).

Michigan improved towards the end of the year last year, and with the core all returning this year along with the fact that John Beilein has had a history of making his teams do a complete 360 in year two’s means this shouldn’t have come as a shock to many. The funny thing is, it did. Most “experts” had Michigan finishing somewhere between sixth and eighth in the conference. I guess I’m more of an expert than them, because I knew this huge leap was coming. How could you not? History doesn’t lie.  Beilein is the only coach in the history of men’s college basketball to have twenty-win seasons on four different levels. Everywhere he has gone, form Canisius to West Virginia, it’s ‘year one, learning, year two, let’s play ball.’

Everyone should have seen this coming. Last Saturday in Ann Arbor, the Wolverines didn’t just get lucky; they played with Duke the entire way and looked as though they belonged on the same court. John Beilein’s 1-3-1 defense, which is getting more and more recognition (Bob Knight said last week that John Beilein was “the best zone defense coach in the country.”) gave Duke fits all day long. It gave UCLA fits all day long as well.  Beilein has his team executing his style the right way; and he has clearly helped improve their individual games as well. Junior Deshawn Sims has quietly risen into a late first round draft pick on some scouts boards, when at the beginning of the year he wasn’t even in anyone’s top 100. Sophmore Manny Harris has gone from being a one dimensional player who could light up the scoreboard but struggled with decisions into what is now an all-around player. He rebounds, defends, plays smart, and creates for teammates consistently, while at the same time scoring efficiently. And Kelvin Grady has turned into one of the top five point guards in the conference when most last year weren’t sure if he was worthy of being a starter.

So I’ll leave you to think about the question: Is Michigan basketball back?