To be honest, there were plenty of reasons to doubt the legitimacy of Michigan’s defensive turnaround. Head coach John Beilein has a lengthy track record of outstanding offensive teams, but they almost all struggled on the other side of the court. While last season was exciting, there was always a chance of regression.
The first two games of the season were encouraging, but came against teams ranked outside of the top-200 on offense. Villanova sits just a tad higher in the top-10. Though the Wildcats lost a lot of talent from last year’s Championship Game, Michigan made sure to leave no doubt to its new-found mantra, completely eviscerating the Villanova offense.