One need not worry about Michigan shrinking from the bright lights of the Sweet 16.

The Wolverines are here for the 5th straight time, and quite clearly as loose as a team can be under these circumstances.

Michigan center Hunter Dickinson turned into Don Rickles during Wednesday’s press conference, sending zingers in the direction of just about every Big Ten team that didn’t make it this far in the tourney.

He referred to Villanova as a “more disciplined” version of Iowa, which is so far off the mark that it can only have been meant as a dig at the Hawkeyes.

When asked about being one of the last Big Ten teams standing in the NCAA Tournament for the 2nd straight season, Dickinson went rapid-fire in all directions.

“This season was definitely like not the best, not the way that we wanted to,” Dickinson noted. “Other fans definitely let us know that, particularly Michigan State, Illinois, who else? Ohio State. Who else? There was another team in there. Who was it? There was one more.

“Oh, oh, the team down in Madison, the red and white team, they definitely let us know how they felt about our season. We heard those NIT chants. They were hurtful. They definitely hurt.”

Dickinson then finished off the top rope.

“It’s funny how they’ll be watching us on Thursday back in their cribs.”

In summation: The 11th-seeded Wolverines will not be uptight for Thursday night’s game against favored Villanova. But unlike Michigan’s previous 2 opponents in this tournament, the Wildcats won’t be either.

Villanova has been here and done that.

“I don’t know if you feel looser, but you feel like, ‘OK, what we do works. Let’s stick to what we do,'” Wildcats coach Jay Wright said. “When you start the tournament, you don’t know. ‘Hey, are the things that we did all year, are they going to work?’

“I think that’s the difference when you get to the second weekend.”

When it comes to recent NCAA Tournament success, this is a showdown between 2 of the nation’s premier programs.

Wildcats, Wolverines near equals in success

Using 2013 as a starting point, few programs can touch what Michigan and Villanova have accomplished.

The Wildcats have made every NCAA Tournament since that season, and the Wolverines have missed out just once.

Michigan is more consistent when it comes to deep runs, with 7 Sweet 16s, 2 Elite 8s and a pair of national championship game appearances. Jay Wright’s team has been to 4 Sweet 16s and 2 national title games.

Of course, it is on the final Monday of the season that the Wildcats have differentiated themselves from the Wolverines. Villanova won both of its title appearances, including a 2018 win over Michigan. The Wolverines are still chasing their first national championship since 1989 and the Big Ten’s first since 2000.

That this rematch is being played in the same city as that 2018 title game is not lost on Michigan senior Eli Brooks, who remembers it well. Fittingly, Villanova was his other finalist in recruitment — championship programs have an eye for the same type of players.

“This was the 2 schools that it came down to for me, so this is a big matchup for me,” Brooks said prior to his potential final college game. “To get the win back in the same place that we lost the National Championship Game in …”

Almost mid-thought, Brooks fell back into coach-speak.

“But I’m not going to make it personal about myself,” he said. “It’s about moving on to the next round. It just happens to be Villanova back in San Antonio.”

Brooks had already revealed the truth. Of course it’s personal. But that doesn’t mean he’s being selfish.

Michigan has accomplished everything Villanova has over the course of the past decade minus cutting down the nets. Beating this program is symbolically significant for Michigan basketball as a whole. Brooks is a part of that whole for whom it matters most.

Can Michigan change the outcome this time?

Villanova’s roster isn’t as strong as it was in 2018, but the same is true of Michigan’s.

One certainty is that the Wildcats had the top individual player in that game — guard Jalen Brunson. This time around, Michigan may have the best player on the floor in Dickinson. And with no players over 6-8 in Villanova’s lineup, Dickinson has a chance to shine.

After averaging 24 points in Michigan’s first 2 Tournament games, he’s certainly primed to do so. Michigan’s guards, of course, will need to be up to the task against Villanova’s talented and disciplined backcourt.

But if they can avoid too many miscues while Dickinson carries the offensive load, the Wolverines might be able to outplay the 1 team they won’t be able to out-poise.