‘It’s not high school basketball’: Michigan needs edge to turn season around

Entering Saturday’s game against Minnesota, Michigan finally seemed to have put their season on the right track.

A week ago, the Wolverines sent a strong side from San Diego State. On Tuesday, they followed the win with a Nebraska choke in their first conference game.

After a tough 4-3 start to the season, Michigan began to look like the team that came into the nation’s fourth-ranked year.

That two-game streak also laid a plan for a substantial turnaround. There was an apparent weak point in the schedule, with games against Minnesota, Southern Utah, Fort Wayne and UCF before the conference resumes in January. It seemed like a great opportunity for Michigan to sort out its early season issues and get off the ground by stepping into the Big Ten gauntlet.

By the end of a deflated 75-65 loss, however, that vision had crashed and burned.

“It was a great wake-up call for us to realize how good the Big Ten is and how difficult it is to get a win,” Hunter Dickinson said after the game, his voice monotonous. “There are no free nights so you have to bring it every night or anyone in the Big Ten can beat you.”