These 10 are some of the best quotes of the year - many of which explain exactly what happened to Michigan this season.

10) “It’s real disappointing. They’re a Final Four team, Top 5 team right now and we was right there beating them. And we let it slip away. So it hurt a lot.” - Manny Harris on Jan. 21 after losing to Michigan State, 57-56, in Ann Arbor.

9) “Sometimes, he does that crossover without even dribbling. How tall is he, 6-7, it’s ridiculous. If he’s around the basket, doesn’t matter who is guarding him, 10 foot, he’s going to hit it.” - Stu Douglass on playing against Ohio State junior Evan Turner in Columbus on Feb. 27.

8) “We hadn’t really developed a chemistry, hadn’t really played a lot with each other coming into the season. It was basically a chemistry thing.” - DeShawn Sims on why Michigan struggled this season, Jan. 2010.

7) “That certainly took us out of rhythm. And then, because that took us out of rhythm, our defense in the second half was not good. We just got distracted by our lack of offense. That’s just the story of this team, so we got to keep working at that.” - Michigan coach John Beilein on how Michigan lost a 17-point lead to Northwestern at home (Jan. 10) because the Wildcats started trapping and won, 68-62.

6) “The biggest thing is we got to continue to do is leadership, leadership, leadership. When things are going south, the leadership has to come from more than just me. That’s the thing we’re working out. It’s not a negative in terms of, it’s just almost a - there’s got to be some positive stuff coming from within the team. It comes from some people. It’s got to come from more.” - John Beilein on his team’s leadership after
Michigan lost to Northwestern, 68-62, on Jan. 10.

5) "Wouldn’t that be something, to really make a mark in the last 10 games. I don’t know what our record would be, but let’s just, it’s a whole new season." - John Beilein after beating Iowa, 60-46, at home on Jan. 30. Michigan went on to lose five of its next seven.

4) “Last year, we kind of snuck up on some people. People didn’t really expect us to do too much, and we just weren’t ready for that role of becoming the hunted. A lot of people, we came out No. 15 ranked, and a lot of people came out and gave us their best shots. And we weren’t ready for that. A lot of it has to do with off-season workouts and leadership, which I’ll be able to provide now after this year of experience, just really consistently and the upperclassmen have to get that, too.” - Darius Morris on what happened to Michigan this year, March 12.

3) “I still don’t know how we’re going to get out of this deal where we’ve had good shooters that lost so much confidence. But when that’s happened you have to play great defense and that is what saved us in this game. First half, not so good, second half was terrific.” - John Beilein after Michigan shot poorly - a story of the season - in a win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Dec. 5.

2) “Nobody deserves that type of whipping at home, but we certainly got one.” - John Beilein after Wisconsin beat the Wolverines, 62-44, on Feb. 6.

1) “It was like a movie the way the whole game was. We come out and play really hard, go up by six and then they make a run, go up by 13 and you think the game’s going away. But we made those plays, and we get stops and we get scores and then they score and then we score and then they score and we score and next thing you know it’s a tie game, our ball. Manny hit a runner with 2 seconds left and they hit a half court shot to win the game.

“It was a movie. Big rivalry, Michigan-Ohio State. But it’s a tough way to end the season, definitely.” - Anthony Wright after Evan Turner made a 37-footer to beat Michigan in the Big Ten tournament, 59-58, and end the Wolverines’ season on March 12.

Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein.