The team played its home games in Ann Arbor, Michigan at the Crisler Arena, which has a capacity of 13,751, for the forty-fourth consecutive year.

This put them in a four-way tie for fourth and earned them a number four seed in the 2011 Big Ten Conference men's basketball tournament.

For the fifth consecutive year they won their first game in the tournament, but lost in the semifinals to eventual champion Ohio State.

The team was captained by Zack Novak, who became one of the forty Academic All-American finalists for the second year in a row, and Stu Douglass.

On NCAA Tournament selection Sunday, The Fab Five aired and comments it contained brought attention to issues of race in sports and education and the Duke–Michigan rivalry.

[5] Jerry Dunn, who took a leave of absence in December of the prior season, was replaced by Jeff Meyer who had filled in for him on an interim basis.

[6] Mike Jackson left the Michigan basketball program to join rival Purdue and was replaced by LaVall Jordan, who previously served as an assistant coach for Iowa.

[7] The team lost its four tallest contributors from the prior season: DeShawn Sims, Zack Gibson, Anthony Wright and Manny Harris.

The same weekend that Harris declared for the 2010 NBA draft in late March,[8] the team accepted a commitment from Jon Horford.

[38] On January 30 against Iowa, he had become the third Michigan Wolverines men's basketball player (following Gary Grant and Manny Harris) to record a triple double.

[36] In its other close contests against ranked opponents, Michigan had a second single-digit loss to #1 Ohio State on February 3 in a game where they led at the half.

[48] On February 28, Hardaway earned his third consecutive and fourth overall Big Ten Conference Freshman of the week recognition.

[53][54] Morris was also a National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Division I District 7 All-District second team choice.

[61] Michigan earned a #8 Seed in the 2011 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament,[62] where they defeated Tennessee by a 75–45 margin in the first round.

It also marked the ninth straight time that John Beilein led a team victory in its first game of a postseason tournament (5 NCAA and 4 NIT).

The controversy spread to The Washington Post where columnist Jason Reid noted that the film went out of its way to present inappropriate racial commentary when it described Duke basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski recruits as Uncle Toms.

[67] Among those critical of the racial commentary was Duke player Grant Hill who was cited in an Associated Press story that ran in major national media outlets.

[72] Following the season, Darius Morris sought the advice of the NBA's undergraduate advisory committee to determine his draft prospects.

[73] On 4 May, Morris announced his final decision not to withdraw his name prior to the 8 May deadline and to enter June 23 2011 NBA draft.

[77] Following the season Hardaway was invited to the 17 – 24 June 2011 17-man tryouts for the 12-man FIBA Under-19 World Championship team by USA Basketball.