Michigan Wolverines Basketball: Who Can Catch Big Ten Favorite U-M?

Michigan’s impressive first half of the Big Ten schedule had the Wolverines atop the Big Ten standings at 8-1 and ranked No. 4 nationally heading into February. The athletic campus shutdown slowed the momentum put a major question mark on the season going forward, but there was hope Juwan Howard’s team would continue Feb. 14 or so and pick up where it left off.

As of Feb. 4, Michigan was still considered the favorite to win the title. Here are our choices as their main competition:

1. IOWA (13-4 overall, 8-3 Big Ten): Fran McCaffrey’s team is doing what Fran McCaffrey’s team usually does — playing outstanding offense, not very good defense, winning impressively at times and dropping occasional games it shouldn’t. On the latter, the biggest head-scratcher came Jan. 21 in an 81-69 home loss to an Indiana team that stood 9-7 overall, 4-5 in Big Ten play and followed up its upset victory with a home loss to a 7-6 Rutgers team that had been struggling.