The school competes in the Big Ten Conference in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and play their home games at Crisler Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Eight of these have been consensus All-Americans, which are Cazzie Russell (twice), Rickey Green, Gary Grant, Chris Webber, Trey Burke, as well as Harry Kipke, Richard Doyle and Bennie Oosterbaan (twice) who were retroactively selected by the Helms Foundation.

[9] The 1926 squad, which was captained by Richard Doyle who became the team's first All-American, tied with Purdue, the Iowa Hawkeyes and Indiana Hoosiers for the conference championship.

[11] Franklin Cappon had a long history of association with Michigan athletics starting with his service as a four-time letterman in football and basketball from 1919 to 1923.

He coached Michigan's first All-Big Ten basketball players that season in Pete Elliot and captain Bob Harrison who were both selected to the first team.

In 1966, Russell led the team to its third straight conference championship and NCAA selection on his way to National Player of the Year honors.

[23] After the 1988–89 season, Frieder accepted the head coach's job at Arizona State, but wanted to remain at Michigan for the NCAA tournament.

"[24][25] Frieder's top assistant, Steve Fisher, was named interim coach immediately before the 1989 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament and led the team to six straight victories and the championship.

Two years later, Fisher signed the famous recruiting class known as the Fab Five (Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Jalen Rose, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson).

He was named full-time coach following the 25–9 (11–5) 1997–98 season in which he led the team to victories over Iowa, Minnesota and Purdue to capture the Big Ten Conference men's basketball tournament championship.

The Wolverines improved in Beilein's second season and posted impressive non-conference victories over top-five ranked opponents UCLA and Duke.

[33] Following a disappointing 15–17 season in 2009–10, the Wolverines bounced back to return to the NCAA tournament in 2011, advancing to the round of 32 before losing to top-seeded Duke, 73–71.

On February 20, 2018, NCAA confirmed and upheld penalties against Louisville for "arranging striptease dances and sex acts for prospects, student-athletes and others.

[37] The 2013–14 team had another strong season, winning Michigan's first outright Big Ten championship since 1986 and advancing to the Elite Eight of the 2014 NCAA tournament, where it lost to Kentucky 75–72.

During the 2017–18 season, Beilein's Wolverines again won four games in four days to win back-to-back Big Ten tournament championships for the first time in school history.

Following a Final Four victory over a rising Loyola-Chicago team, Michigan moved on to face Villanova in the 2018 NCAA tournament national championship game.

[40] Beilein advocated for a system similar to college football, where a committed player needed to stay in school for at least three years.

[41] It was speculated that the rise of "one-and-done" and early NBA Draft entries, which resulted in a trend of more time spent on recruiting and higher turnover of players, contributed to Beilein’s decision to depart from college basketball.

[43][44] On May 22, 2019, Fab Five member Juwan Howard was named the head basketball coach of the Wolverines, agreeing on a five-year contract.

[45] Despite losing three of their leading scorers from the 2018–19 team to the NBA draft, Howard led an unranked Wolverines to a 7–0 start, including back-to-back wins over No.

On March 4, 2021, the 2020–21 Wolverines clinched the regular season Big Ten title with a 69–50 victory over instate rival Michigan State.

[54][55][56] In his first month, he led the Wolverines to being the Fort Myers Tip-Off champions,[57] and ranked inside the top 15 of the AP poll for the first time since November 2021.

[58] Totals through March 9, 2025 The Fab Five, the 1991 recruiting class of five freshman starters, were Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Jalen Rose, Jimmy King, and Ray Jackson.

[61][62] Due to the issues found with Webber’s eligibility in the Ed Martin scandal, the records from their 1992 Final Four appearance and the entire following season have been vacated.

[65] They were the subject of Mitch Albom's book, Fab Five: Basketball, Trash Talk, the American Dream,[66] which at one point was under development by Fox Television as a made-for-television movie.

The program was punished for NCAA rules violations, principally involving payments booster Martin made to several players to launder money from an illegal gambling operation.

[68][69] The case began when the investigation of an automobile rollover accident during Mateen Cleaves' 1996 Michigan Wolverines recruiting trip revealed a curious relationship between Martin and the team.

Four eventual professional basketball players (Chris Webber, Maurice Taylor, Robert Traylor and Louis Bullock) were discovered to have borrowed a total of $616,000 from Martin.

For his perjury during a federal grand jury investigation, he was both fined in the legal system and briefly suspended by National Basketball Association after performing public service.

[72] The following year, the NCAA accepted these punishments, doubled both the probation period and the post-season ineligibility, penalized the school one scholarship for four seasons, and ordered disassociation from the four guilty players until 2012.