There is no such thing as a must-win game in November in college basketball.

However, there are games that feel a little bit more important that must be something that

the team takes very seriously, not a must-win, but a game that could be a potential pivot

point on the season.

For Michigan, coming into Thursday night's matchup with Stanford, of course, coming off a 3-0 start, they were in danger of falling to 500.

Also, with how this bracket has lined up, no disrespect to a proud, proud program of Northern Iowa.

But as we discussed on last night's recap, this Michigan team would have faced a Northern Iowa team that will likely be the lowest finishing team in

terms of the metrics of the field. So, because of the neutral site element to this, Michigan,

had they lost to Stanford, would not have an ability almost certainly to pick up a quad one

win out of this event. Stanford could be, and of course the matchup with Texas Tech looms

on Friday. But not just the metrics of this all, because there is a long, long way for us to go

between now and thinking about an NCAA tournament resume. It's easy to, based on how the last

couple of seasons have gone, because it has been so close for Michigan down the stretch in both years,

two years ago, eking their way in and getting to the second weekend, last year unable to do so,

and they missed the dance.

But in addition to the external factors, how this game played out was certainly helpful because

Michigan, they cleaned up some things that

we knew were problematic going into this game and at times during this contest. Stanford jumped

out to a 14 point lead. They were hitting everything, starting 10 of 12 from the floor,

and Michigan's defense, which had really struggled at times this season, was again allowing a team to gash them.

But Michigan gathered itself.

They went from giving up 62% shooting in the first half to 39% in the second half.

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