John Beilein on Michigan: 'I haven't seen anything like what happened out in Las Vegas'

Michigan Wolverines basketball is 7-0 and ranked No. 3 in the country in the Associated Press poll, its highest placement since February 2021. The Wolverines are rolling as early conference play begins, with head coach Dusty May‘s crew set to host Rutgers Saturday at Crisler Center.

Michigan is coming off an incredible week in Las Vegas, winning the Players Era championship behind 40-point wins over San Diego State and Gonzaga and a 30-point triumph over Auburn.

Watching from home, former Michigan head man John Beilein was beyond impressed.

Beilein had two Wolverine teams that started off with 16 or more wins in a row, in 2012-13 and 2018-19, but none of them blew out quality opponents back-to-back-to-back early in the season like Michigan did last week.

“I haven’t seen anything like what happened out in Las Vegas,” Beilein said on ‘The HUGE Show’ with host Bill Simonson. “John Beilein’s teams did not go out to Vegas and beat teams by 40 points three games in a row. This is unprecedented, what they’re doing, and let’s see where it goes. But, enjoy. Sit back and enjoy.”

Michigan fans are enjoying, and excited for Saturday’s game against Rutgers, which was announced as a sell out. The Wolverines will host Villanova next Tuesday and go to Maryland the following Saturday.

That’s the immediate schedule, but with the way Michigan State is playing, too, off to an 8-0 start with marquee wins over Arkansas, Kentucky, North Carolina and Iowa, Beilein can’t help but look ahead.

“It’s incredible,” the former Michigan coach said of the way the two teams are performing. “You know, I would never do this as a coach, I would never look ahead on the schedule. I wouldn’t even know sometimes right after the game who we played next. But I just did what I never did — I just looked at both schedules, and they play on January 30th. And there’s a chance — this sounds crazy for a coach to say — that both teams, we got Michigan State with Duke, but that’s at Breslin Center, they’ll win that one, could both be undefeated at that time.

“They both could be in the top five at that time, when they play at the Breslin at the end of January. And then they play again in Ann Arbor in the very last game of the season [March 8 at Crisler Center].”

Right now, Beilein is correct, there’s a chance both teams are undefeated. In fact, KenPom projects that Michigan and MSU will each win the rest of their games leading into the Jan. 30 clash in East Lansing. And then, the site predicts that the Wolverines will come out on top, 73-71.

“These are two elite teams,” Beilein said. “One is a team that’s been together for a lot of time, they know each other — Michigan State. Dusty has blended in this team of the newcomers with the returning players.”