Harris' Benching Still Fueling Michigan

On its surprising drive to the NCAA tournament, Michigan seemingly blew a tire Feb. 22 in Iowa City. That Sunday afternoon, playing against an undermanned and, quite frankly, under-skilled Iowa team, Michigan blew a lead late and lost in overtime as coach John Beilein benched star guard Manny Harris, offering only "I didn't think he was playing well" as an explanation.

It looked like a death blow to its NCAA hopes at the time, and the move was met with total disdain by Michigan's fans, but in the aftermath of the stunning benching, the team is playing some of its best ball of the season. The Wolverines are 3-1 since -- with wins over Purdue, at Minnesota and now a 73-45 thrashing of that same Iowa team in the Big Ten tournament's first round.

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Harris played a huge role in Thursday's easy revenge victory over the Hawkeyes, scoring 18 points, grabbing seven boards and dishing out seven assists. He's averaging just under 20 points per game in the Wolverines' last three victories. Most of his points, though, came after Michigan had already grabbed a stranglehold on the game, after teammate DeShawn Sims had made his mark.

Sims finished the first half 8-for-8 from the floor, and 2-for-2 from the line for 18 of his game-high 27 points -- for comparison's sake, Iowa tallied just 19 first-half points.

Michigan moved to 20-12 with the victory, and grabbed its 10th win against conference foes. The Wolverines may still not be a lock for the field of 65, but they have to be very, very, very close. Another loss to Iowa (15-18 overall) would have been devastating to their cause, so while the victory doesn't add to their computer numbers, getting that victory in such impressive fashion might be enough to ease any waning concerns the tournament committee had.

The Wolverines are also 5-2 in their past seven, important because of the tournament committee's focus on recent success. And the last three of those wins came after Beilein's highly-criticized decision at Iowa. It looked like a nail in Michigan's coffin at the time, but it has paid huge dividends since.