Monday marked the official release of the 2010 NCAA Tournament field.

It’s a bracket that the Michigan baseball team has gotten used to being a part of as of late. The program made the postseason in four straight years from 2005-08, advancing as far as the Super Regional in 2007 when the Wolverines fell one win short of making the College World Series, which for the first time since 1984.

But when all 64 teams were announced on Monday, Michigan, as expected, was left out, and its season was rendered officially over.

Michigan set out before the season to try and reclaim the Big Ten regular season title after a disappointing 2009 that saw it drop from the top of the conference and miss the conference tournament.

The Wolverines fought through the craziest race in memory — all six coaches present at the Big Ten Tournament said they couldn’t remember anything like it — remaining near the top the whole way through.

But when the dust settled, Minnesota was in sole possession of first place — one measly game above Michigan.

The team had its chances to definitively win the league. Coach Rich Maloney counted four games as ones the Wolverines should’ve won.

Had they even won half of those, they would’ve been Big Ten champs and the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament, where things maybe would have turned out differently, and Michigan would have found itself in the NCAA field after winning the conference tournament.

But the Wolverines fell just short in Columbus, losing two more games (to Minnesota and Iowa it should have won). And because they fell just short in the nonconference portion of the year, their profile was not strong enough to merit an at-large bid.

What’s most surprising is how well Michigan competed in the non-conference, considering the team was without junior leftfielder Ryan LaMarre, who broke his thumb in just the third game of the season.

Maloney said after the last game against Iowa that LaMarre is a player “you don’t replace” if the Jackson native leaves for professional ball after the MLB draft, as is expected.

Yet without their best player, and against a schedule Maloney repeatedly called the toughest the program had ever faced, the Wolverines nearly pulled off some amazing victories.

Michigan lost by two runs to now-No. 7 national seed Louisville, by two runs in one game and one run in another with NCAA tournament team North Carolina and by just three runs in a game with now-No. 4 national seed Coastal Carolina.

What if LaMarre was in the lineup? Would his presence have been enough to turn a couple of those losses into wins, and would that have been enough of an RPI booster to get the Wolverines into the tournament?

But the questions don’t end there. Senior right-hander Alan Oaks looked like one of the top two or three pitchers in the Big Ten as he breezed through those tough nonconference opponents, but struggled more once he got to the comparatively weaker conference competition.

What if he maintained his early-season form the whole year? Would it have added a few more wins to Michigan’s tally? Would it have saved the bullpen enough so that it didn’t wear down and finally collapse at the end?

Senor first baseman Mike Dufek smashed 24 doubles to lead the team this season, but only managed six homers after knocking 17 last year. What if some of those doubles turned into home runs? Would it have been enough to turn some of Michigan’s low-scoring losses into wins?

It's tempting to think about how close the Wolverines came in several of their games and goals this season, but ultimately, these and other questions don’t matter — what’s done is done.

“One team gets to wear the crown,” Maloney said after the season-ending Iowa loss. “And we’ve worn it a lot of times, and certainly we want to win it again. That’s the desire every year, and we expect to.”

Michigan was close — painfully close — but couldn’t pull it off in 2010.

And because of how close they came, and because of how little more seemed to be necessary to put them over the top, the Wolverines will look back at this season with that one overriding question:

What if?