About a half hour before tipoff against Bryant on Thursday night, I sat down courtside with Cleveland Cavalier guard and former Michigan standout Manny Harris, who returned to Crisler Arena to watch a game for the first time since declaring for the NBA draft last March.

When I asked him what he thought of this year’s young Wolverine squad, his response had some conspicuous implications.

“… great team chemistry,” he said of Michigan, seemingly with a glimmer of envy in his eyes.

When Harris announced his decision to leave the program last spring, Michigan coach John Beilein, his players and his fans braced themselves for a tough life without their homegrown hero from Detroit. And with what was sure to be an embarrassing 2010-11 season, the team tried to keep the glass half full.

We’ll survive without Manny. He wasn’t a team player anyway. Our young guys will develop quicker without him.

But ever since, the Wolverines have done heck of a lot more than survive — rather, they’ve thrived without Manny. And Harris himself had a front row seat on Thursday night to watch how far the team had come without him.

That’s been the story of this crew through the first 12 games of the season — Michigan is clicking as a team more than it ever did last year under the leadership of all-Big Ten stars Harris and DeShawn Sims. And although Harris maintains that rushing to the NBA a year early was the best move for him at the time, I have to believe it was difficult for him to watch the Wolverines knock down a program record-tying 16 3-pointers as he sat opposite the Michigan bench, powerless.

Heading into conference play, Michigan is sitting pretty with a 10-2 record, both losses coming against more than worthy opponents in then-No. 9 Syracuse and UTEP. Last year, the team went just 7-5 before entering its Big Ten schedule, quickly squandering its preseason No. 15 ranking and becoming one of Division-I basketball’s major disappointments of the 2009-10 season.

So why exactly does Manny-less Michigan have so much chemistry? Why hasn’t the team crashed and burned like pretty much every analyst said they would?

My answer is threefold.

First, sophomore point guard Darius Morris has taken the reigns of Beilein’s offense with more confidence than anyone could have predicted. Quietly, Morris has become one of the Big Ten’s (and the nation’s) elite floor generals, averaging 7.5 assists a game — good for third best in the country — and a team high 15.8 points per game.

And possibly more impressive than his performance is his on-the-court mentality. Morris goes into every contest with the goal of reaching 10 assists. Obviously, if he has an open shot, he’ll take it. But with Morris’s pass-first approach, Michigan sustains longer possessions, takes time to find the holes in opposing defenses and hits the open man.

On a play where Harris may have driven to the basket in traffic and forced a running, no-look circus shot, Morris would drive, notice that the defense has collapsed and dish out to a now-open shooter on the perimeter. Honestly, I can’t count how many times I’ve seen the Wolverines drain a 3-point bucket on that play this season.

Oh, and Morris has already hit three more triples of his own than he had all last season. No big deal.

Second, Michigan’s post play has far exceeded expectations. Again, this is an element of Beilein’s squad that nobody saw coming, as the team’s three options at center are all first-year players.

Leading the way is redshirt freshman Jordan Morgan, who — over the course of his redshirt year — went from an overweight practice squad player to a starting center who’s built more like the Incredible Hulk than a collegiate athlete. Morgan’s new body has allowed him to become the garbage man Michigan has yearned for in the lane, cleaning up the offensive glass and finishing off possessions with easy buckets.

When Morgan rests or gets into foul trouble, freshman Jon Horford owns the paint. And as he continues to gain confidence under the lights, you can start to see why Michigan coaches are so excited for his development over the next few years. This kid can do it all — box out bigger opponents, finish underneath in traffic, shoot from long range and run the floor, albeit, in a kind of goofy way.

And lastly, Michigan is playing well because of their low expectations.