The 2012–13 Michigan Wolverines men's basketball team finished fourth in the Big Ten Conference (having been co-champions in the previous year's regular season), ended the 2013 NCAA Tournament as National Runner-Up, and reached the top of the AP Poll for the first time in 20 years. Led by head coach John Beilein and playing their home games at the University of Michigan's Crisler Center for the 46th consecutive year, the Wolverines had the best start in school history by winning their first 16 games, and 19 of their first 20. The team ended with a 31–8 win–loss record, its most wins in 20 seasons. The Wolverines had lost 2011–12 captains Zack Novak and Stu Douglass to graduation. The incoming class of Mitch McGary, Glenn Robinson III and Nik Stauskas was ranked among the best in the nation. The team was led by national player of the year Trey Burke (pictured) and All-Conference honorees Tim Hardaway, Jr., Robinson, and Jordan Morgan. Burke was the second National Player of the Year and fifth first-team consensus All-American in Michigan basketball history. At the 2013 NBA draft, Burke and Hardaway became Michigan's first pair of first-round draft choices since 1994. Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012%E2%80%9313_Michigan_Wolverines_men%27s_basketball_team> _______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 217: Roman emperor Caracalla was assassinated at a roadside near Harran and succeeded by his Praetorian Guard prefect Macrinus. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caracalla> 876: Forces of the Abbasid Caliphate defeated the army of the Saffarid amir Ya'qub ibn Laith, forcing Ya'qub to halt his advance into what is now Iraq. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dayr_al-%27Aqul> 1864: American Civil War: A decisive Confederate victory in the Battle of Mansfield stopped the advance of the Union Army's Red River Campaign. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mansfield> 1904: France and the United Kingdom signed the entente cordiale, agreeing to a peaceful coexistence after centuries of intermittent conflict. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entente_cordiale> 2008: On board Soyuz TMA-12, Yi So-Yeon became the first Korean person, and second Asian woman, to go into space. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yi_So-Yeon> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: cross swords: (idiomatic) To quarrel or argue with someone, to have a dispute with someone. <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cross_swords> ___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:   Lives of great men all remind us greatness takes no easy way. All the heroes of tomorrow are the heretics of today.   --Yip Harburg <https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Yip_Harburg>