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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — It was huge news on Monday, when the Wolverines came in at No. 4 in the latest AP Top 25.
Michigan was previously unranked, but impressed the entire nation by storming into the Bahamas and winning the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament last week, having to go through both the No. 6 North Carolina Tar Heels and No. 8 Gonzaga Bulldogs.
Under the previous regime in Ann Arbor, there’s be little attention paid attention to about the rankings. With Juwan Howard now leading the charge, it’s not that there’s more of a focus on it — but there’s a recognition of the hard work it took to get the nation’s attention.
Still, Howard says, the team has to focus and worry more about taking things one game at a time, because true championships aren’t won in the first month-plus of the season.
“I saw it – my son called me and told me about it,” Howard said. “He was excited as well as surprised, but he also felt that we earned it. I agree with him. At the end of the day it’s early. Championships are not won – yes, we won a championship during Thanksgiving play, but the NCAA Championship in April – you can’t get there yet until you start playing the Big Ten (Conference). We have many of those to try to go out there and achieve.”
The new rankings certainly are resonating in Crisler Center, helping galvanize the team as it prepares to take on the newfound No. 1 in the country on Tuesday night in the Louisville Cardinals.
Michigan is hoping that it can repeat the current trend of taking down, not only a top ten team, but the No. 1 overall squad, as Louisville is the fourth top-rated team in five weeks — with preseason No. 1 MSU losing in the opening contest to Kentucky, Kentucky getting similarly upset to unranked Evansville, and Duke getting surprised by Stephen F. Austin.
But like their head coach, the Wolverines players, while they’re happy to see a number — a high one — next to their name after last week’s accomplishments, they’re aware that it means little if they don’t take care of business moving forward.
“For sure, I would be lying if I didn’t say it was refreshing,” DeJulius said. “It’s really helping us for our confidence. But it’s gonna be the same mindset, same approach that got us here. Just continuing to work hard each and every day in practice, continue to trust each other, have fun together, trust this coaching staff. When you do those things, those are the recipe to win it.”
“It’s big news for us, being unranked and jumping up that high,” senior center Jon Teske added. “But, at the same time, we’re not really worried about that. We were unranked and people weren’t talking about us and we were just doing our job. We gotta come in each and every day with that mentality that, yeah, people are talking about us now. Continue to come in everyday and do our job, and continue to do what we did to get to this point.”
But will they be able to keep the pedal down on the floor, that’s the question?
Howard is sure that his group will remain focused, given how they’ve handled the offseason, the early season, and the success they’ve had to this point.
“I have a very hardworking, humble, driven, focused team that understands what we set out to do,” Howard said. “We’ve always been very – kept everything in house, pride on how we approach things. As a family, we feel we have team goals that we have to achieve. We’re going to keep driving and forging ahead.”
Michigan and Louisville tip-off at 7:30PM at KFC Yum! Center on Tuesday. The game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN.