The phrase is pretty common. It's a cliche in sports. You're not as good as you think you are

when things are going well, and you're not as bad as you think you are when things are going

poorly. For Michigan men's basketball, the first three games of the regular season could not

have gone much better. The Wolverines, who struggled last season against non-conference

opponents at home and buy games against some of those mid-majors,

they dominated a couple of teams that are projected to be real contenders in their leagues,

UNC Asheville in the opener, and then Youngstown State in game number two.

Then, on Monday night at Madison Square Garden, the Wolverines seemingly put a lot of people

on notice with a dominant

win over Rick Petino and St. John's. Michigan was a pretty common topic amongst college

basketball fans, and sure, it's a long season, but Michigan looked to already be a team that

was going to outperform some of the modest, and that's saying it lightly,

projections for Michigan at the start of the season.

But then Friday night happened.

Long Beach State ranked higher than both UNC Asheville and Youngstown State,

the two teams that came to Chrysler Center in the first week of the regular season.

The beach came to town and they took it to Michigan. The Wolverines certainly had the advantage early.

They stormed down to a 23 to 7 lead, where again, we learned very quickly that things were not as good as they seemed.

From there, it was really all Long Beach State.

They outscored Michigan 87 to 63.

And when we talk about things not being as good or as bad as they may seem,

that is certainly the case in totality when you take the 50 floors up perspective on things.

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