The #Michigan men’s basketball team is ranked No. 1 everywhere except in the AP Poll. After another dominant win on Tuesday, Dusty May said that needs to change:
To say that things are going well for the Michigan men’s basketball team to start the 2025-26 season would be a massive understatement.
The No. 2 Michigan Wolverines are coming off a 89-61 win over Villanova, a game in which U-M dominated, wire-to-wire, which is becoming the norm. Michigan has now won six games in a row by 25 points or more, with two of those games coming against opponents ranked in the Associated Press Poll; per Larry Lage with AP, that’s the first time a team has done that since the 1995-96 season.
The 9-0 Wolverines are ranked No. 1 in the NET, in KenPom, in Bart Torvik, in USA Today’s Coaches Poll, and on EvanMiya.com. Michigan has a KenPom adjusted efficiency margin of +37.20; as Drew Hallett with The Wolverine pointed out after the Villanova win, that’s the fourth-highest margin in the KenPom era (since 1997), behind only 1999 Duke, 2025 Duke and 2001 Duke.
Michigan isn’t just the No. 1 team in the country in almost every metric. At this rate, the Wolverines are on pace to be one of the most efficient teams in modern college basketball history. But somehow, the Wolverines are No. 2 in the AP Poll, behind Arizona.
After the win, Michigan head coach Dusty May said that Michigan has earned the right to be ranked as the best team in the country.
“The No. 1 ranking, these guys deserve it, man,” May said. “What they’re doing now, to defend and block out all the complacency issues that can creep up on the team, it’s a testament to our work…they still want more, and they know that we have to get better if we want to beat the best night in and night out.”
With these high rankings come the burden of expectations; the Wolverines are the talk of the college basketball town, but the coaching staff is doing its best to keep the team grounded.
But according to Elliot Cadeau — who led Michigan with 18 points in the win, his highest point total as a Wolverine — the players are making sure not to fall into the hype as well.
“I just know that the outside noise is ultimately what causes teams to crumble from within,” May said. “Every single day we’re running into a headwind with what they’re seeing and hearing…if we let that in, then we become like a lot of other teams.”
“We all see it on social media, we don’t really talk about it, we just try to get the win and try to win by as much as possible,” Cadeau said. “I think it’s unselfishness, we’re on a team with absolutely no ego, I’ve never played on a basketball team like that and I’ve played basketball for a long time.”
Depth is a big reason why Michigan is winning these games by such wide margins, with Michigan’s nine-man rotation not allowing teams a chance to breathe in a fast-paced game.
“Having a nine-man rotation is great, it definitely takes a certain level of sacrifice,” Will Tschetter said the Villanova win. “Guys are having to sacrifice minutes, shots, things like that, having a selfless group we have has been paramount so far, we just need to make sure we keep this within the team and keep this trudging forward.”
“We just try to constantly remind each other not to let up in these games, especially when we’re up by a lot,” Cadeau said after the game. “We have so many good players off the bench that we feel like we can play as hard as we can and get new bodies coming in, fresh bodies.”
It really does feel like the sky is the limit with this group, with unselfishness being at the root of what has made this team look like the best team in the sport over the last few weeks.
“We thought we had a really good team (before the season started),” May said. “You have a group of guys that are committing to each other, they are sacrificing for each other, they’re putting their teammates on the same plane or above themselves because that’s the only way this works.”
Category: General Sports
