Hunter Dickinson believes Michigan showed its strength despite loss vs Virginia

Michigan hosted one of the top college hoops teams in the country Wednesday as third-ranked Virginia brought their undefeated record into Ann Arbor to face the Wolverines. Well, thanks to a late lead-taking jumper by Jayden Gardner, the Hoos were able to escape unblemished. However, Michigan was right there until the very end, proving they’re more than capable of competing with the best teams in the nation in any given game.

That was the sentiment shared by Wolverine center Hunter Dickinson after the game. Though his team was on the losing side, Dickinson knows that playing that well against such a strong opponent is a good sign for the team’s development in the long term.

“I think it means that, you know, we obviously are one of the top teams in the country,” said Hunter Dickinson when asked of his takeaways from the loss. He then went on to explain how the teams has grown just since the season started.

“I know we had you know a loss early in the season, too, and we were playing some teams tight. So I think today was a really big step for us just to go out there and show the country that, you know, we are one of the best teams in the country. Going toe-to-toe with the No. 3 team in the country, I think it just is a great step forward for us.

“You know, we had some games before this that we probably didn’t play as good as we wanted to, and we kind of squeaked by a couple games. But I think this one is a really good step for us, even though it wasn’t the outcome that we wanted. I think it was a good building block, especially for the next game that we play. Because that’s gonna be another great team as well.”

That next team being Kentucky, who has also hit some early season road bumps, but is always one of the most talented teams in the country. Michigan will travel abroad to face the Wildcats, tipping off in London, England at 1 p.m. on Sunday.