The Michigan men’s basketball team defeated the Spartans on Saturday night at Crisler Arena.

No, not those Spartans.

Instead, the Wolverines topped South Carolina-Upstate 66-35, riding a hot start and aggressive defense to a season-opening blowout victory.

The Spartans got on the board first, as guard Tony Dukes nailed a three from the left corner on their first possession. But Michigan responded with a 13-0 run and never looked back.

The Wolverines (1-0) were led early on by freshman guard Tim Hardaway Jr. He said after the game that he had some pre-game jitters in anticipation of his first collegiate action, but he didn’t show it, hoisting up five three-point attempts in the first 5:06 and knocking down two of them to set the tone.

Michigan coach John Beilein said that his team’s hot start was critical, especially considering the Wolverines’ youth.

“I think everybody was pretty nervous, just getting out there for the first time,” Beilein said after the game. “(Hardaway Jr.) came right out … really shot the ball well to get us going.

“Getting a freshman comfortable is very hard because usually, number one, he’s sitting on the bench waiting to get time. We got three of them out there not sitting on the bench and in the starting lineup, so that’s a whole different comfort level.”

And after getting an early lead, Michigan stayed comfortably ahead the entire night. It was in stark contrast to the exhibition victory over Saginaw Valley State on Nov. 5, in which the Wolverines allowed the Cardinals to come back due to a cold shooting streak.

Against the Spartans, the Wolverines went 12-25 from the field in the first half to establish their pace and finished with a 44-percent shooting clip, going 7-22 from beyond the arc, compared to just 3-21 in the exhibition.

Junior guard Stu Douglass said he had no real explanation for the discrepancy between the two games, but that the team will have to shoot well consistently to keep tallying wins.

“Who knows?” Douglass said. “Next game we might come in and have those same stretches that we did in the exhibition game. But it’s the way we handle adversity. There was a little bit (of missed shots tonight), but next game, there’ll be a test, (and) constantly throughout this year. We’ll see how we respond.”

Michigan's defense was the main factor in the team's dominance throughout the game. The Wolverines stayed in man-to-man almost exclusively, moving to the 1-3-1 zone for a few possessions near the end of the game just to get some practice in a game situation.

Despite only forcing 12 turnovers, Michigan made life miserable for the Spartans, constantly pressuring the ball and getting in the face of shooters when they had quality attempts, which were few and far between.

The Wolverines limited their own turnovers, thus preventing transition opportunities for South Carolina-Upstate and causing the Spartans to run their half-court offense, which just never seemed to click due to Michigan’s quality defensive play. Michigan didn’t even have an offensive scouting report for the game due to USC-Upstate’s roster turnover from a year ago, meaning that the Wolverines just had to focus even harder on playing quality defense, according to Beilein. They answered the bell, as the Spartans shot just 22.2 percent from the field for the game.

“We’re probably right where we should be (defensively) with the idea that it’s the first game,” Beilein said. “It’s going to be really difficult and a challenge for us everyday to continue to play defense so that we can rebound and then score points. … We think we’ve really stepped up with playing defense. (Assistant coaches LaVall Jordan, Bacari Alexander and Jeff Meyer) have done a great job improving what we do defensively.”

Beilein cautioned that his team will have to capitalize on the type of fast-break opportunities that the Wolverines often struggled to convert against USC-Upstate. Ideally, in a game like Saturday's, Beilein said Michigan would have 75 or 80 points.

But for a team that has only two upperclassmen, the Wolverines accomplished everything that they needed to in their first game.

“(There are) still a lot of things to work on but we improved completely and we got better as the game went on, didn’t let up in the second half,” Douglass said. “I couldn’t be prouder about the way we played.”