For Michigan to have an opportunity to make some memories in March, they knew going into February that this month would have to be their best.

One game in, so far so good. What made Michigan's 6851 win over Northwestern so impressive is that they not only did things that we've seen them do well at times before, but they added some things to their arsenal.

Certainly we've seen the emergence of Kobe Buffkin, but he took it to another level.

15 points, a career high, 12 repounds, five more than his previous best, which came in an overtime game against Ohio back in November,

and eight assists, also a career high. We saw Joey Baker go five of six from the floor with a one miss, barely missing.

Michigan assisted the basketball at a remarkable rate, 21 on 24 field goal attempts,

and they took their defense to the next level.

Northwestern shot just 38%.

They only mustered 51 points. Remember, the Wildcats

put up 78 against Michigan back in Ann Arbor last month. Michigan did things that they've done

pretty well, really well. They did some things that they've struggled with, turning the basketball over.

They had 18 the first meeting against Northwestern, just seven this time around.

It all added up to probably Michigan's second best performance. The Maryland win on New Year's Day,

that's going to take the cake probably all season long. But to do it on the road, again, talking about something that this team has not done a whole lot of this season,

their only other road win this year came at Minnesota, there in last place in the league.

Northwestern came into this one, and probably still will leave this one as an NCAA tournament

team, but very much on the bubble.

But Michigan, they needed to start pulling off wins against teams that are in or close to

being in the NCAA tournament.

Trying to leapfrog some clubs.

And, well, they certainly did that emphatically on Thursday night.

6851, Michigan all over Northwestern.

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