00:00And let's lead off with the new number one team in the country, and that's the Michigan Wolverines.
00:06Sliding into that spot isn't just a nice story, it's a resume flex for Dusty May and his crew.
00:13They haven't been number one, folks, since 2013, and they earned it by stacking results while Arizona finally cracked over
00:20the weekend.
00:21And they backed it up almost immediately in a huge spot.
00:25In their first game as a top team in the country, Michigan went into West Lafayette and beat number seven,
00:30Purdue, 91-80.
00:33That's not a surviving advance win.
00:35That's a road statement.
00:36Five Wolverines hit double figures.
00:38LA Cadu had 17 points and seven assists.
00:41And Michigan put Purdue in an early hole with a 16-0 run.
00:46Purdue got a monster nut by Trey Kaufman, running, giving you a double-double with 27 points and 12 rebounds.
00:51Well, Braden Smith scored 20 points, albeit all in the second half and six assists, and they just couldn't flip
00:59the script.
01:00From a coach's lens, this is what a number one team looks like.
01:03They have multiple solutions.
01:05You don't depend on one guy going nuclear to get a win.
01:09You can win with pace.
01:10You can win with execution.
01:11You can win when their opponent throws punches like Purdue did in the second half.
01:16Now, the rest of the season impact is big.
01:19Being February number one is both a blessing and a target.
01:24Lennarty literally called the state of the top team and flags a weekend showdown with Duke, which we'll preview in
01:30our final four segment as a monster match, which is part of a big weekend, like I said, we'll get
01:35to in our final segment.
01:37So here's what I'm watching for for the big blue.
01:40Can Michigan keep defending at a championship level when teams turn every possession into a grinder?
01:45Can they keep winning road games when the crowd is treating their game like a Super Bowl?
01:50And can they avoid that one thing that happens to a lot of number one teams in that one seed
01:55line?
01:55A random slip up against a team trying to play for their tournament life.
02:00Michigan earned number one.
02:02And they got the where number one.
02:04Because from here on out, everybody's going to play them like it's March.
02:09And it's still February.
02:10It's still February.
02:10It's still February.
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