A brief history of Michigan basketball in ‘revenge’ games under John Beilein

Last year in Chapel Hill, Michigan basketball hardly looked the part of an NCAA Finalist.

North Carolina, the defending national champs at the time, bullied the Wolverines 86-71 behind forward Luke Maye’s 27 points in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.

What a difference a year makes.

John Beilein’s offensive genius combined with Luke Yaklich’s defensive prowess to fuel a run to the title game. They enacted some vengeance for the loss to Villanova two weeks ago, blasting the Wildcats by 27 in Philadelphia.

It follows a pattern in the Beilein era. His teams typically avoid two losses in a row to non-conference programs. With the 11th-ranked Tar Heels visiting Crisler Center Wednesday (9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN), Michigan looks to continue the trend.

In just his second season, his team responded to the previous year’s double-digit defeat to No. 4 UCLA.

That took place in the Preseason NIT semifinals in Manhattan. The next night, the Wolverines fell by 15 to Duke.

Only two weeks later, Beilein got the better of Coach K with an eight-point triumph in Ann Arbor.

Deep into Big Ten play, Beilein led the 2008-09 outfit to Storrs, Conn. to face the top-ranked Connecticut. The first of a home-and-home series ended with a 69-61 Huskies victory.

The following year, Beilein and company returned the favor 68-63, with fans storming the court in the process. In the postgame recap, some bald jackass danced like a fool behind Verne Lundquist.

My hair style has not changed.

The 2009-10 campaign also featured Kansas and Utah routing the Wolverines. The next year, Michigan dispatched the Utes by 11, and pushed the No. 3 Jayhawks to overtime.

Eventually, Trey Burke snatched victory from the jaws of defeat over Kansas in the 2013 Sweet Sixteen.

After Darius Morris doinked a floater off the rim in the 2011 NCAA Third Round versus Duke, the Wolverines dropped another just months later to the Blue Devils in Maui.

This started a stretch of consecutive losses to power programs. Over the next four years, Beilein sustained consecutive losses to power programs such as Duke (again), Arizona and Southern Methodist.

Once 2016-17 rolled around, the revenge theme resurfaced. First, the Maize and Blue finally got over the hump against SMU, blowing them out 76-54 in the 2K Sports Classic.

A few months later in March Madness, the program finally slayed Dracula, that is Rick Pitino, in the first meeting since the 2013 NCAA Championship Game.

More specifically, Mo Wagner put a stake in the Cardinals in the 73-69 victory.

With Michigan already roasting Villanova in this year’s rematch, expect another motivated effort Wednesday against Roy Williams and the Tar Heels.