In Michigan’s home opener against South Carolina Upstate last month, I spotted a secluded fan snoozing in the student section of Crisler Arena.

The kid was likely hung over — the football team had just downed Purdue earlier that afternoon, and most students need some recovery time after the raging that follows one of Michigan's rare Big Ten football victories nowadays.

But it was still quite the transformation from the start of last season. When I showed up to Crisler a few minutes late for the 2009-10 home opener against Northern Michigan, still high off Michigan's run to the NCAA Tournament a year earlier, I found myself jostling for one of the crummy student section seats next to the band on the baseline.

It’s not rocket science. The seats fill up when the Wolverines (4-2) win. And after a dismal 2009-10 season in which Michigan coach John Beilein failed to garner even an NIT invitation and an offseason in which the team’s two leading scorers — who accounted for 53 percent of all scoring last season — left for greener pastures, who could blame the students for not showing up (or not staying awake)?

But a funny thing happened in the game against South Carolina Upstate.

A few minutes into the second half, when the Wolverines were struggling to put up points, freshman forward Tim Hardaway Jr. drove to the hoop through traffic, elevated himself well above the rim and posterized the Spartan center as he slammed one home.

Yep, sleeping beauty in the student section awoke, and he quickly stood up to applaud along with fellow fans, albeit a little confused about what had just happened.

A few minutes later, freshman forward Evan Smotrycz caught a pass in the corner and took an open baseline to the basket for another dunk. And on Michigan’s next possession, junior guard Zack Novak threw one down, hanging on the rim nearly long enough for a technical.

That one got the Maize Rage going. They hadn’t seen that much spunk in a Michigan player in any game since the team's tourney run.

But the Wolverines weren’t done. Seconds later, Novak blocked South Carolina Upstate’s Chalmers Rogers on the other end and passed up to sophomore guard Darius Morris, who finished with a dunk on the fast break.

Three straight Michigan possessions. Three dunks, all from different players. And a crowd that was smaller than the Michigan Ultras contingent — the students who fill the substantially smaller bleacher seats of the U-M Soccer Complex — cheered louder than they had all of last season.

I know what you're thinking. That was South Carolina Upstate. Michigan's scrub players could have beaten them. And you're right, the Wolverines' first few games this season were light matchups.

The team’s goal for the postseason is still the NIT. I'm definitely not saying you should go tell your friends that Michigan is making it back to the NCAA Tournament this year. Beilein’s current squad is just too young, and even that’s an understatement. The Wolverines are one of four teams in Division I with no fourth-year starters (no seniors, no redshirt juniors).

Every game, the team invariably shows its youth on the court at some point — a poor pass here, a lack of hustle there. And for Michigan fans, it’s downright scary that Beilein will enter Big Ten play in less than a month and start three first-year players in the frontcourt.

But there’s a reason to think that this year’s team is still good. There’s a reason these Wolverines went to Atlantic City over Thanksgiving break and stuck with No. 8 Syracuse. There’s a reason they beat Clemson on Tuesday in the hostile confines of Littlejohn Coliseum.

It’s the same reason every coach in the country hates playing against a Beilein-coached team. On any given day, a different Michigan player can beat you.

On opening day, Hardaway Jr. led the Wolverines’ scoring effort with 19 points in his collegiate debut. In game three against Gardner-Webb, Morris registered 21 points and 10 assists for the team’s first double-double of the season. Against Syracuse, it was junior guard Stu Douglass with a big day. Against Clemson, it was Smotrycz.

You get the point. Last year, the team’s success lived and died with the scoring abilities of Manny Harris and DeShawn Sims. This season, opponents won't know who to prepare for, and that makes Michigan a very scary group of youngsters with tons of upset potential.

Go to Crisler, stay awake and see it for yourself.