2010–11 Michigan Wolverines men's basketball team

2010–11 incoming team members

The 2010–11 Wolverines saw assistant coach John Mahoney be replaced by Bacari Alexander. Alexander had most recently been an assistant for Western Michigan. Jerry Dunn, who took a leave of absence in December of the prior season, was replaced by Jeff Meyer who had filled in for him on an interim basis. Mike Jackson left the Michigan basketball program to join rival Purdue and was replaced by LaVall Jordan, who previously served as an assistant coach for Iowa.

The team lost its four tallest contributors from the prior season: DeShawn Sims, Zack Gibson, Anthony Wright and Manny Harris. The same weekend that Harris declared for the 2010 NBA Draft in late March, the team accepted a commitment from Jon Horford. Horford, who was named a 2010 Class A All-State performer from the Associated Press, the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News, is the younger brother of Atlanta Hawk Al Horford and son of former NBA player Tito Horford. Horford did not actually sign his letter of intent until the opening of the spring signing period on April 14. After Horford's signing, the Wolverines had two scholarships available. The 2010 class included Tim Hardaway, Jr., son of Tim Hardaway. With the signings and loss of Ben Cronin to injury, the 2010–11 team's front court was composed of incoming freshmen Evan Smotrycz and Horford along with redshirt freshmen Blake McLimans and Jordan Morgan.

Jordan Dumars (son of Joe Dumars) transferred to the University of Michigan in January 2010 after playing in six games for the South Florida Bulls men's basketball team. According to NCAA transfer eligibility rules, he must sit out a complete academic year. Thus, he was able to join the team following the completion of the fall 2010 semester.

2011–12 team recruits

The team also announced that Glenn Robinson III, son of Glenn Robinson verbally committed on September 14, 2010 as the first commitment in Michigan’s class of 2012. On March 26, 2011, Michigan received its second verbal commitment of the class of 2012 from Canadian wing guard Nik Stauskas.

Offseason

In June 2010, Beilein announced that he had dismissed redshirt Junior Laval Lucas-Perry from the team. In August the team took part in a four-game exhibition tour in Belgium.

Honors and awards

Records

N.B. All accolades cited in the text below.

Regular season

The seniorless 2010–11 team had one win against ranked opponents in eight regular season attempts. All but one loss against a ranked opponent was by single digits. In its first game against a top 10 team, it has lost to #10 Syracuse by 3 on November 26. The team had two wins over power conference opponents: Clemson and Utah. Those two wins were part of a November and December seven-game winning streak that was the team's first since the 2006–07 team opened its season with seven wins. The win against Clemson on November 30 was Michigan's first ACC-Big Ten Challenge win in five years. Another one of the seven wins was on December 4 against eventual 2010–11 Ivy League men's basketball season champion Harvard who was coached by former Michigan coach Tommy Amaker.

On December 23, 2010, against Bryant University, the team tied its December 13, 2008 single-game school record of 16 three-point field goals made. In the game, Darius Morris and Tim Hardaway, Jr. had been two of three Wolverines to make four three-point shots. Morris had had 12 assists on his way to a double-double. It was Hardaway's first 20-point game. On December 27, the Big Ten Conference named Morris player of the week and Hardaway co-freshman of the week.

In its second and third games against top 10 teams, Michigan lost to #3 Kansas in overtime on January 9, and to #2 Ohio State by 4 on January 12. By week 11's poll, which was released on January 17, the team's first three top 10 opponents were the top three ranked teams in the country in both national polls and accounted for all the first place votes in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches' Poll.

On January 27, Morris led Michigan to its first win against Michigan State in East Lansing, Michigan at the Breslin Center since 1997. This was its only victory was against a ranked opponent as Michigan State was ranked 25 in one poll and unranked in the other on January 27. On January 30 against Iowa, he had become the third Michigan Wolverines men's basketball player (following Gary Grant and Manny Harris) to record a triple double. Morris repeated as player of the week on January 31, sharing the award with Talor Battle.

In its other close contests against ranked opponents, Michigan had a second single-digit loss to #1 Ohio State on February 3 in a game where they led at the half. They also had a one-point loss against #12 Wisconsin on February 23. On February 3, 2011, Novak was named one of 40 Academic All-District players by CoSIDA, making him a finalist to become one of fifteen Academic All-Americans on February 22. In February, Hardaway earned Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors three weeks in a row. On February 14, Hardaway earned his second Freshman of the week recognition for his first career double double on February 9 against Northwestern (17 points and career-high 10 rebounds) and a career-high 26 points on February 12 against Indiana. The following week, Hardaway earned a third Freshman of the week award as he became the first Michigan freshman to score thirty points in a game in eight years. His thirty points came in a 75–72 February 19 overtime victory over Iowa. He had also scored 10 points and added 5 assists in a 54–52 loss to Illinois. On February 28, Hardaway earned his third consecutive and fourth overall Big Ten Conference Freshman of the week recognition. During the week, Hardaway extended his double-digit scoring streak to eleven by posting 22 points against Minnesota on February 26 after scoring 16 against #12 Wisconsin on February 23. For the week, he shot 9 for 15 on his three-point shots.

After starting the conference schedule with a 1–6 record, the team won 8 of its last 11 games including a pair of games against in-state rival Michigan State to earn its first season sweep against them in 14 years and to finish tied for fourth in the conference with a 9–9 record. Following the 2010–11 Big Ten Conference men's basketball season, Darius Morris was selected as a third team All-Big Ten selection by both the coaches and the media and Hardaway was an honorable mention All-Big Ten selection by both. Hardaway was also one of two unanimous Big Ten All-Freshman team selections by the coaches. Morris was also a National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Division I District 7 All‐District second team choice.

Postseason

The team earned the number four seed in the 2011 Big Ten Conference Men's Basketball Tournament, based on the Big Ten tiebreaker. In the 2011 Big Ten Conference Men's Basketball Tournament, they earned a bye in the first round as the number 4 seed. Then, in the second round, they defeated Illinois 60–55. In the conference semifinals, they lost to Ohio State 68–61. During the game, Hardaway set the Michigan freshman single-season three-point shots made record.

Michigan earned a #8 Seed in the 2011 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament, where they defeated Tennessee by a 75–45 margin in the first round. During the victory, they established two NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship records: The largest victory margin by an eight seed, and the first team to ever win a tournament game without making a free throw. The game was the second largest NCAA tournament victory margin in Michigan history (surpassed by the 1989 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament victory over Virginia). It also marked the ninth straight time that John Bielien led a team victory in its first game of a postseason tournament (5 NCAA and 4 NIT).

In the second round of the tournament, the team opposed Duke. Duke prevailed 73–71. In the game, Morris set a new Michigan single-season assist record with a total of 235. The matchup came in the week following the media storm that erupted as a result of comments made in the ESPN films 30 for 30 documentary The Fab Five by Fab Five member and former Wolverine Jalen Rose. The controversy spread to the Washington Post where columnist Jason Reid noted that the film went out of its way to present inappropriate racial commentary when it described Duke basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski recruits as Uncle Toms. Among those critical of the racial commentary was Duke player Grant Hill who was cited in an Associated Press story that ran in major national media outlets. In fact, Hill blogged on The New York Times with a response. Hill's response was the most emailed story in The New York Times and was shared on Facebook by nearly a 100,000 people within its first few days.

Hardaway set the Michigan freshman single-season three-point shots made record. Morris set the Michigan single-season assist record with a total of 235. His average of 6.71 per game led the Big Ten and Jordan Morgan led the Big Ten in field goal percentage. The team finished last in blocked shots and offensive rebounds in the conference.

Hardaway was one of 21 players selected to the 2011 Collegeinsider.com Freshmen All-America selection on March 25. Following the season, Darius Morris sought the advice of the NBA's undergraduate advisory committee to determine his draft prospects. On May 4, Morris announced his final decision not to withdraw his name prior to the May 8 deadline and to enter the June 23, 2011 NBA Draft. Morris was selected by the Los Angeles Lakers with the 41st overall selection in the 2nd round of the 2011 NBA Draft. Following the season Hardaway was invited to the June 17 — June 24, 2011 17-man tryouts for the 12-man FIBA Under-19 World Championship team by USA Basketball. The 12 selected players will compete as Team USA in the 2011 FIBA U19 World Championships in Latvia from June 30 — July 10, 2011. He made the final roster along with two other Big Ten rivals.

Statistics

The team posted the following statistics:

Team players drafted into the NBA

So far two players from this team have been selected in the NBA Draft.