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2008–09 Michigan Wolverines men's basketball team

2008–09 Michigan Wolverines men's basketball
A blue block M with maize-colored borders and the word Michigan across the middle.
A team of basketball players are huddled together on a basketball court. The entire team is reaching to the center with one arm so that their hands touch.
NCAA Tournament, Second Round
Conference Big Ten Conference
2008–09 record 21–14 (9–9, T-7th Big Ten)
Head coach John Beilein
Assistant coach Jerry Dunn
Assistant coach Mike Jackson
Assistant coach John Mahoney
MVP Manny Harris
MVP DeShawn Sims
Captain C.J. Lee
Captain David Merritt
Home arena Crisler Arena
Seasons
← 2007–08
2009–10 →
2008–09 Big Ten Conference men's basketball standings
Conf     Overall
Team W   L   PCT     W   L   PCT
No. 8 Michigan State 15 3   .833     31 7   .816
No. 17 Purdue 11 7   .611     27 10   .730
Illinois 11 7   .611     24 10   .706
Penn State 10 8   .556     27 11   .711
Ohio State 10 8   .556     22 11   .667
Wisconsin 10 8   .556     20 13   .606
Minnesota 9 9   .500     22 11   .667
Michigan 9 9   .500     21 14   .600
Northwestern 8 10   .444     17 14   .548
Iowa 5 13   .278     15 17   .469
Indiana 1 17   .056     6 25   .194
2009 Big Ten Tournament winner
Rankings from AP Poll

The 2008–09 Michigan Wolverines men's basketball team represented the University of Michigan in competitive college basketball during the 2008–09 NCAA Division I season. The 2008–09 season marked the team's ninety-second consecutive season as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Big Ten Conference. The team finished the season with a 21–14 overall record and a 9–9 conference record. The 9–9 conference record tied for seventh place in the 2008–09 Big Ten conference standings. Michigan was seeded seventh in the single-elimination 2009 Big Ten Conference Men's Basketball Tournament where it advanced one round. They were seeded tenth in the South Regional bracket of the single-elimination 2009 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament, where it also advanced one round before losing to the Blake Griffin-led Oklahoma Sooners. C.J. Lee and David Merritt served as team co-captains, and Manny Harris and DeShawn Sims shared team MVP honors.

The 2008–09 season marked a turnaround for the team for several reasons. The team rebounded from a 10–22 overall record and a 5–13 conference record during the previous 2007–08 season. The season was highlighted by the team's first two wins in eleven years against teams ranked among the top five in the AP Poll, and by the team's first trip to the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament since the 1998 Tournament. Although the team had appeared in the 1998 NCAA tournament, the last appearance in the NCAA tournament that had been recognized in official NCAA records as not having been tainted by the University of Michigan basketball scandal was their 1995 Tournament appearance. The team was in its first year off scholarship probation, which following the scandal had restricted the number of available scholarships. However, the team continued to be prohibited from affiliating with implicated athletes (Chris Webber, Robert Traylor, Maurice Taylor, and Louis Bullock) until 2012, which meant, among other things, that the players could not help the University recruit. The team began the season unranked, but in December 2008 it earned its first place in the top 25 since February 2006. As the season progressed, the team adopted the slogan "Queme los barcos", which is Spanish for "burn the ships", as a reminder that there was no turning back.


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