The Michigan Wolverines' basketball team finished unranked in the final Associated Press Poll released this afternoon, which is exactly where it began the year.
U-M checked in just on the outside of the top-25, finishing at No. 29 in the country after it wrapped up the year with a 19-12 overall record and a 10-10 mark in league play.
RELATED: Howard Outshining the Rest of the Big Ten on the Recruiting Trail
RELATED: How Howard Compares to Other First-Year U-M Coaches
Kansas unsurprisingly finished as the nation's final No. 1 team with a 28-3 record, while No. 2 Gonzaga, No. 3 Dayton, No. 4 Florida State and No. 5 Baylor rounded out the rest of the top-five.
Michigan finished the year with four wins over clubs who concluded the year in the top-25, handing Gonzaga one of its two losses (BYU was the other), while also taking down No. 7 Creighton in November, No. 9 Michigan State in February and No. 25 Iowa in December.
The Big Ten as a whole saw six of its teams finish the year ranked, with Maryland checking in at No. 12, Wisconsin at No. 17, Ohio State at No. 19, Illinois at No. 21 and the aforementioned Michigan State and Iowa at No. 9 and No. 25, respectively.
No other conference had more than four.
U-M was a lock to make its fifth consecutive NCAA Tournament this year, and what would have been its ninth in the past 10 years.
Head coach Juwan Howard was also slated to become just the third Michigan coach ever to lead the Wolverines to the Big Dance in his first year on the job, with Steve Fisher in 1990 and Brian Ellerbe in 1998 being the other two who have done so.
The Maize and Blue were projected to be anywhere from a No. 6 to a No. 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Final AP Poll
---
• Talk about this article inside The Fort
• Watch our videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel
• Listen and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, The Wolverine
• Sign up for our newsletter, The Wolverine Now
• Follow us on Twitter: @TheWolverineMag, @Balas_Wolverine, @EJHolland_TW, @AustinFox42, @JB_ Wolverine, Clayton Sayfie and @DrewCHallett
• Like us on Facebook
