Four potential 'outliers' that could lift Michigan basketball this March

Michigan Wolverines basketball is looking to make a run in March. The Maize and Blue still need at least two more wins to feel safe about earning an NCAA Tournament bid. Once the Wolverines arrive in Indianapolis for the Big Ten Tournament and, potentially, the Big Dance following that, they'll hope to make some noise there, too. Oftentimes, the teams that win during the most important time of the year for the sport aren't necessarily the ones that were the best or most consistent from November to February. Instead, it's the squads that elevate their game to the next level, are able to win in different ways and, of course, get some breaks to fall their way. Not many programs have been better than Michigan in recent history. The Wolverines have won over 70 percent of their games in March since 2013, and have won 21 NCAA Tournament games. A big reason why they've been able to get hot and stay alive — outliers. For many years, former Michigan head coach John Beilein stressed the importance of having certain players of aspects of the game rise up in the biggest moments. The importance of having outliers has been carried down into the Juwan Howard era. “I know if we had one player step up and play as an outlier right now, whether he's a really good player who all of the sudden goes bonkers, becomes a 50-percent three-point shooter, gets to the basket and all of these things, or one guy that's off the bench, one player right now would change a lot of situations that we've been in," Beilein said back in 2017. “One guy that could really help us. Somewhere on that team, we've got to find it.” Michigan has gotten performances like that when the lights are shining the brightest, too. Mitch McGary playing like an All-American down the stretch in 2013, Spike Albrecht's 17 points in the first half of the the national title game that same year, and Eli Brooks and Chaundee Brown each scoring 21 points in a win over LSU during last season's round of 32 (despite averaging a combined 17.5 points per contest for the season) are just a few examples. Last week, Michigan assistant coach Saddi Washington insisted that the Wolverines need some outliers to emerge down the stretch, so we've decided to examine five possibilities for this March.