Discipline, accountability, sacrifice, family, trust, all in.

Those are the six values that embody the culture of Michigan men's basketball.

In a normal year, Michigan needs to embody all six of those values to achieve success on the basketball floor.

In the year of COVID, many of us have needed some or all of those values

to keep forging ahead. It takes something extra than to endure all of that and then win,

inarguably, the best conference in college basketball this season, and arguably the best

conference in the modern era of college basketball. That's why it was so fitting that all of this came together for this group of Michigan

Wolverines on Thursday night.

Senior night.

A home game against Michigan State.

A chance to clinch the Big Ten regular season championship.

Two days after some of the biggest adversity this team's faced all season.

And then, confetti, net cutting, and soon to be a banner-raising celebration.

The last 12 months have brought about so many challenges for this team, for all of us.

Honestly, just holding your ground should be ruled a success since this time last March.

Well, when you find a group that has the discipline to socially distance, wear a mask,

and avoid unnecessary contact, the accountability to show up every single morning for COVID tests,

the sacrifice to be apart from friends and family. The family-based atmosphere

over Zoom calls and text messages to be able to handle that lack of contact with your friends and

family. The trust that everyone else is doing the same and staying as diligent as you and the all-in approach to fight through all of that

and still be at your very best when the ball is tipped in the best conference in college basketball.

Yeah, and you've got something special.

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