With the Big Ten Tournament taking place a week early this year, Michigan has had a full week to reflect on the conference tournament title while preparing for Selection Sunday and the "madness" ahead.
It's easy to assume having a long break is a bad thing when the Wolverines are trending sharply upwards and the momentum is in their corner, but head coach John Beilein says the week off has been very valuable to his team.
"Yesterday [practice] was a little chippy, actually. I like that," said Beilein ahead of Friday's practice.
The Wolverines took Monday and Wednesday off, with instructions from the coaching staff to "be students", "stay out of the gym", and "don't pick up a basketball", but Beilein said he's been pleased with the intensity of the practices they've had. Beilein said practices this past week have resembled October practices: plenty of conditioning and fundamentals.
Moritz Wagner says his team has been focused on shaking the championship hangover.
"It's on the one thing with winning, it's really tough to recover from that in a sense, you know? When you have the trophy already it's kind of hard to motivate yourself again, so as a team and especially us leaders, we've got to find a way to get the other guys and ourselves to get the next motivation," said Wagner.
This week has been about resting and refocusing, but the team is also getting ready to soak in all the joy of playing in the NCAA tournament.
"It's a lot more fun. One of my favorite parts is after shootaround, you get chicken tenders," said Muhammad Ali Abdur-Rahkman with a chuckle.
Michigan will hold a watch party on Sunday to find out where, when, and against what team, they will open the tournament.
