It probably wasn't the way either had chosen to end their college careers.

Zack Novak and Stu Douglass will never again wear the maize and blue. They go out with Michigan the victim of a round-of-64 upset at the hands of Ohio, 65-60. The senior duo was a combined 3-13 from the field, scoring 10 points few than their season average.

When asked after the game what it was going to be like remembering their final game struggles, Douglass had a simple answer.

"Very tough," he said. "I really don't even know how to answer that. It's going to be hard to swallow."

Coach John Beilein said it was hard to watch his seniors go out that way.

"It's difficult because they've been the heart and sould of this team for four years," Beilein said. "You hate to see that, this happen when they end like that."

But as painful as this loss may be, the reality is that only one group of seniors gets to ride off into the sunset satisfied each season. Novak and Douglass will be remembered as the senior class that started to bring Michigan back from a low point, still suffering from the aftershock of the Ed Martin scandal.

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The Michigan Wolverines looked dead in the water last year. Beyond dead. Deader than dead. And then a spark, an upset over a then-ranked Michigan St. Spartans team, triggered the Wolverines, who roared through the 2nd half of their schedule after falling to 1-6 in Big Ten play.

Perhaps the biggest contributor to last year's team was Darius Morris, who contributed a team-best 6.7 assists per game and 15.0 points per game. But Morris elected to try for the NBA Draft (which is in lockdown; don't ask me how I feel about David Stern. Just don't.), and will be a member of the Los Angeles Lakers...if the NBA ever gets started this year.

Jordan Dumars elected to end his Michigan career, citing knee issues. Aside from Dumars, only Morris is a departure from last year's Michigan team, which had no seniors. With Morris off to fame and fortune at the NBA level, someone will have to step it up. Will it be Stu Douglass? Zack Novak? Or talented big man Jordan Morgan? Find out, after the jump.

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When we last left the Michigan Wolverines, they had played four Big Ten games against Penn State, Minnesota, Indiana, and Wisconsin. 

Penn State's prolific G Talor Battle exhausted his eligibility dragging the Nittany Lions to the NCAA Tournament, and Ed Dechellis is no longer in State College. However, the Nittany Lions hired a better coach in Pat Chambers, plucking him away from Boston University. The new-look Lions are a complete toss-up; John Beilein has done well against Penn State in his career (5-3 against Penn State in the regular season) but Chambers is not Ed Dechellis.

The Wolverines will take on the Minnesota Golden Gophers in Crisler Arena before travelling to Bloomington; Michigan suffered a humiliating 19-point loss to an Indiana team that was dead last in the Big Ten on their last trip to Assembly Hall. Michigan then hits another bump in the road with a game against the Wisconsin Badgers in Crisler Arena, who they have lost approximately ten thousand consecutive games to.

After this comes the meat of Michigan's conference schedule. What will make or break their season, after the jump:

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The Michigan Wolverines flirted with disaster last season, finally coming alive down the stretch to make the NCAA Tournament. While they proved unable to upset Ohio State, Purdue or Wisconsin, the Wolverines put together two solid games against their rivals, the Michigan St. Spartans, and swept their hated rivals. Michigan's sweep was stunning, in light of John Beilein' s previously winless record against MSU.

With the dynamic scoring presences of Tim Hardaway Jr., Jordan Morgan, and Darius Morris, the Wolverines had a solid trio of players to work with in 2010-11. They remained extremely competitive with top teams; the Wolverines nearly knocked off a top-10 Syracuse Orange team, then forced overtime against a Kansas team that fairly rolled through the Big 12. The only blowout loss they suffered to a ranked opponent in conference play was at the hands of Purdue (they lost by 23 points in Mackey Arena), with the Wolverines coming within 4 points of then-undefeated Ohio State and nearly knocking off Wisconsin in Crisler Arena.

But Darius Morris is no longer wearing a Michigan jersey, electing instead to opt for the NBA Draft, where he was selected by the Los Angeles Lakers in the second round. But the players that return from last year bring experience against the top teams, and include some of the more talented players in the conference. Last year's team had no seniors, but this year's team has Zack Novak and Stu Douglass. Both players will have to supplement the consistent Tim Hardaway Jr. and Jordan Morgan for the Wolverines to be successful this season.

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Earlier in the offseason, I talked with Dave at Maize N' Brew, SB Nation's home for all things Wolverine. Let's get to it. 

What do you think was the best win of the past season? The worst loss?

MnB Dave: The biggest win of the season was easily Michigan's losing streak breaking win in East Lansing. Michigan was 1-6 in the Big Ten and looking like a team on the verge of collapsing. Instead they absolutely took it to their ranked, in-state rival in their own house. That win was the defining moment of the season. Not only did it end a
miserable losing streak, but it gave the Wolverines momentum for the rest of the season. For the record, a close second was Michigan's utter incineration of Tennessee in the NCAA Tournament.

The worst loss of the season was their 19 point gacker against Indiana in Bloomington. Michigan was thrashed by the worst team in the league, and the 19 point spread didn't do the loss justice. Michigan was never in that game.

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It's been 20 years since the Fab Five exploded onto the college basketball scene. Jalen Rose, Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson were arguably the best recruiting class in basketball history.

Michigan hasn't been back to that level since 1991, but the program is on the upswing in terms of talent. Last year's class included three impact players -- Tim Hardaway Jr., Jon Horford and Evan Smotrycz. The classes of 2011 and 2012 have their shares of quality commits, as well.

Unfortunately for the Wolverines, the team's best player Darius Morris has decided to leave for the NBA draft. The Maize and Blue should recover, though.

Ann Arbor will see the beginnings of Max Beilfeldt, Trey Burke and Carlton Brundidge in 2011. 

Brundidge, a four-star guard from Southfield, Mich., may be expected to step into Morris's shoes. While his jumper isn't what it probably should be, he can get to the bucket with the best of them. He's a scorer who gives it 100 percent every second he's on the floor.

It remains to be seen, however, if Brundidge can score around the hoop at this level with his 6-foot, 1-inch frame. 

The highlight of the class of 2012 is Glenn Robinson III, son of the former NBA All-Star and Naismith winner at Purdue. 

A consensus four-star wing, Robinson was an early commit and has the potential to be special. He needs to build strength, but has a lot of tools to work with. His understands the game and uses his length to his advantage on both ends of the floor.

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If a casual basketball fan has seen a Michigan basketball game in the past few years and hears John Beilein's name mentioned, the first thing that comes to mind is the run that almost took his West Virginia team to the Final Four with his unconventional offensive and defensive style of play. Beilein's teams were known thereafter as teams that do a few a things:

Listening to a few national media members leading up to the NCAA Tournament discussing Michigan was frustrating, as the image of Beilein's memorable WVU squads was more fresh in the minds than the passing image of a Wolverines team that they hadn't paid any attention to for about 90% of the season. Hearing basketball "experts" mischaracterize Michigan -- especially with the false perpetuation that this team's 1-3-1 defense was a huge reason for their success (even though they didn't run it outside of last-ditch comeback attempts against Kansas and Duke) -- was somewhat understandable, after all they weren't supposed to have a reason to watch Michigan throughout the year, but hearing Michigan fans also echo the Beilein stereotype was bizarre.

Michigan's team broke the mold that John Beilein rode to a Sweet Sixteen and an Elite bid at West Virginia, and for several reasons. Some elements of his play were the same of course; a lot of three pointers were attempted and the team took care of the ball extremely well. Michigan did do a few things much differently than West Virginia did under Beilein though, so with the help of KenPom's incredibly awesome coaching resumés, we can look at Michigan vis-a-vis three other teams: 2005 WVU (who was an overtime away from the Final Four), 2006 WVU (a Sweet Sixteen team) and 2009 Michigan (who was the first team to go to the tourney at Michigan under Beilein.

Table (with each team's national ranking) after the jump:

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Back when Tim Doyle was trying his very hardest to be a younger, more hip Dick Vitale and back when Michigan was struggling to put away non-conference cupcakes like North Carolina Central and NAIA Concordia, Doyle bestowed a Vitale-esque nickname upon Michigan: The Baby Blues. While this wasn’t anywhere as egregious as calling Darius Morris “The Butterfly”, Doyle gave this obvious moniker to Michigan Basketball’s 2010-2011 as a way to point out the Wolverines’ biggest flaw and a way to excuse their poor early season performances.

This youth – six of the ten players who saw meaningful minutes at points throughout the season were freshmen and there weren't any seniors – was one of the primary reasons that Michigan struggled against the likes of NCCU and Concordia early on, and it was the most commonly cited reason that Michigan was likely to struggle this past year. In a veteran league with many NCAA Tournament contenders, a team that had lost its two best players from an incredibly disappointing sub-.500 season and had the youngest team in any BCS conference was an afterthought to say the least. Everyone knows what transpired last year: Michigan was the biggest surprise in the conference and finished as the four seed in the Big Ten Tournament with a .500 conference record before making the NCAA Tournament and giving a scare to the defending national champions in their final game.

On a smaller scale, Michigan’s surprising year can be broken down by looking at three young Wolverines who were each pretty big surprises in their own right: Tim Hardaway, Jordan Morgan, and Darius Morris. Without any of these young players (Hardaway and Morgan were freshmen and Morris was a sophomore), Michigan would not have been even close to as successful as they were in this past season as each of them exceeded expectations and contributed to varying degrees as integral parts of the team.

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