Thursday night, I was watching the men's basketball telecast of my graduate-school alma mater, the University of Michigan, playing at Iowa. The Wolverines are in a rebuilding phase under first-year coach John Beilein and things haven't gone very well this season.

After the Hawkeyes raced to a 22-7 lead, I switched the channel and forgot to check back the rest of the evening. Hours later, I figured I'd check the web for the final score and, amazingly enough, Michigan had won 60-52. The key to the turnaround, of course, was the fact that the Wolverines had gone on two major runs to overtake Iowa (play-by-play sheet).

Trailing 25-9, Michigan first outscored Iowa 17-4 to cut the deficit to 29-26. Then, trailing 38-29, the Wolverines went on another huge spurt -- 18-2 -- to pull ahead 47-40.