After last night’s game, various members of the media rushed into the Michigan men’s basketball team locker room, surrounding star players like Manny Harris, DeShawn Sims and Zack Novak.

There was, however, one “exclusive” interview.

“Last question,” sophomore Kelvin Grady said, in his most professional-sounding voice, to fifth-year senior David Merritt. “David, could you tell us about your recent facial hair change? It looks like you’ve got a little chinstrap thing going on.”

Grady shoved the maize-and-blue microphone used for Mgoblue.com’s multimedia reporters in Merritt’s face for a reply. Merritt took the joke in stride, stroking his goatee for the camera as people stopped and laughed at the spectacle.

“(Grady’s) just a silly kid,” Harris said, shaking his head and smiling on his way out of the locker room.

The players haven’t had that much fun in a in a postgame locker room in a long time, but a 20-point win over a team that destroyed you two weeks ago will do that.

From here on out, it needs to be the whole team’s M.O. if it wants to be dancing in March. The Wolverines can’t afford to take themselves too seriously, especially in the next four days, because when they get worked up, they shut down.

After Michigan lost to Duke in Madison Square Garden, Ohio State at home and Purdue on the road, Grady sat quietly by his locker, waiting for the media to leave as he soflty and abruptly answered the few questions he was asked. When the losses built up, the team struggled to shake it off and play like it proved it could earlier in the season.

Just look at the Wolverines’ 1-5 skid before last night’s win — tensions were high, answers were few and even a couple elbows were thrown. Michigan has been grasping at straws over the last month to figure out a way to end its potentially season-crippling slump.

Maybe the team was waiting for this win over a red-hot Penn State team. And if that’s true, Grady’s mood — despite the fact that he only played in garbage time — is just what the team needed.

The Wolverines simply wouldn’t have had time to sit and dwell on a now-hypothetical loss to Penn State.

They play Connecticut, the No. 1 team in the nation, in Storrs, Conn., tomorrow. They have just two days after that to prepare for their lone game of the year against archrival Michigan State. Then, they have to finish the Big Ten regular season strong just to keep their precarious position on the NCAA Tournament bubble.

A loss last night would have not only given no momentum going into the next four days, but would have also ended any realistic chance of an NCAA Tournament bid.

It’s just one win, and, with four to five more conference victories still necessary before Michigan fans can buy tickets to the closest NCAA Regional, I don’t want to put too much emphasis on it.

Or maybe a decisive win like this could be just what a program that’s been in hibernation for the last 10 years needs, especially with arguably the Wolverines' two biggest games of the season on deck.

The team knows it — Novak called the second stanza “the biggest half we’ve played all year” in terms of importance.

This afternoon, the Wolverines will board a plane for Connecticut with a newfound bounce in their collective step.

It couldn’t have come at a more perfect time.

— Reid is en route to Storrs, but he can be reached via Blackberry at andyreid@umich.edu.