Michigan basketball is no longer the top-ranked team in the country.
The Wolverines (14-1, 4-1 Big Ten) come off of their worst week of the 2025-26 season − nearly losing to Penn State before getting Saturday upset at home to Wisconsin − and as a result have fallen from No. 1 to No. 3 in the latest USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll.
Unbeaten Arizona rose from No. 2 to the top spot, and Iowa State, another unbeaten, jumped from No. 3 to No. 2. The Wildcats received 29 of 31 first-place votes, while the Cyclones and Wolverines each received one. UConn and Purdue round out the top five. Michigan State moved up one spot, to No. 12, giving the Big Ten five teams in the top 13. (Unbeaten Nebraska is No. 10, while three-loss Illinois is No. 13.)
Michigan entered the week 13-0 but had to escape in Happy Valley, 74-72, when it looked like it might drop its first game of the year. Michigan led by as much as 15 in the latter stages and was up by 13 when a 12-0 Nittany Lions run made it a one-point game in the final minutes.
Against unranked Wisconsin, Michigan got out to an early 14-point lead but John Blackwell (Birmingham Brother Rice alum) got hot and led the Badgers on a 20-7 run to close the half. Wisconsin opened the half making nine straight field goals, including seven 3-pointers in a row to score 25 points in less than five minutes en route. Michigan couldn’t get enough stops in the final minutes, losing the back-and-forth late for a stunning 92-88 defeat.
Michigan could not guard stretch the Badgers’ stretch bigs: Aleksas Bieliauskas made five 3s in the second half and Nolan Winter sunk three 3s.
Wolverines shooting guard Nimari Burnett called it “a smack in our face.”
Michigan basketball schedule this week
Michigan looks to regroup on its trip to the Pacific Northwest − the Wolverines play Washington on Wednesday. (10:30 p.m., BTN) in Seattle and Oregon on Saturday (4 p.m., NBC) in Eugene.
The Huskies are 10-6, 2-3 in conference play. They lost 81-73 at Purdue last week, then beat Ohio State on Sunday, 81-74.
The Ducks are 8-8, 1-4 in conference. Oregon last week lost at Rutgers 88-85 in overtime and home to Ohio State, 72-62. It plays at Nebraska on Tuesday.
Tony Garcia is the Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan basketball drops from No. 1 ranking after first loss