It's time to get excited about Michigan basketball

The Michigan basketball team made a huge statement tonight as they knocked off UCLA at the Madison Square Garden. UCLA was ranked 4th nationally and is coming off three straight final four appearances. Freshman Stu Douglass from Indiana hit the go-ahead 3 pointer with just over 4 minutes left and Michigan held on to win with strong performances from DeShawn Sims, who shot 9-15 for 18 points, and Manny Harris who fought for 15. Michigan won’t have long to celebrate their biggest basketball victory since, well, it’s been a long time (Last win against a top 5 team was 1997). They play #5 Duke Friday night in the Coaches vs Cancer tournament championship game at 7:30 pm.

Michigan was 0-10 against ranked teams last year so the early upset should give them a boost of confidence going into the season. Furthermore, the mediocre Tommy Amaker teams of the mid 2000s never made it to the Big Dance because they lacked big road wins against high quality non-conference teams. Should Michigan find itself in the middle of the Big Ten (4th-5th place) at the end of the season and on the bubble, this is a game that could have huge significance. I know, it’s way too early to be talking about The Dance, but this is a very deep team showing signs of fitting the system implemented last year. Beilein did great things at West Virginia and the future is bright for Michigan basketball. All but 3 games this year are free when you bring your M-Card, go and check them out for yourselves.