CHARLOTTE — Evan Smotrycz and Matt Vogrich sat around the team hotel Thursday watching some of the NCAA tournament games when last-second shot after last-second shot started to fall.

In some way, seeing the craziness from afar Thursday carried over Friday for the Michigan basketball team.

The Wolverines did not want to be in that position. They did not want to have their season hinge on one final shot.

Evan Smotrycz takes a shot Friday against Tennessee. He finished with eight points.

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“I saw the Louisville loss and just kind of showed that March Madness, anything can happen,” Smotrycz said. “First buzzer-beater and then after that, Penn State, Talor Battle hit a huge shot and then Fernandez comes back.

“We didn’t want to leave anything up to chance. I kept saying that in the huddles, that we didn’t want any close games.”

The eighth-seeded Wolverines didn’t during their 75-45 domination of No. 9 Tennessee on Friday, but just in case any of Michigan’s players showed complacency, Smotrycz reminded his teammates that anything can happen. They saw it Thursday.

That was merely one of the small things that led to Michigan’s win on Friday as the Wolverines dealt with playing in the NCAA tournament, many for the first time.

Darius Morris kept waking up throughout the night from Thursday to Friday. After going to bed early he got up at 4 a.m. to use the bathroom because he had drank too much water and Gatorade on Thursday

Then he woke up again at 6 a.m., filled with anticipation. Usually, he needs the 8 a.m. wakeup call to get him going.

Not Friday.

“I slept in spurts,” Morris said. “Waking up for a minute one or two times during the night. The one at 6 o’clock, I thought I was ready to go and then I looked at the clock and said ‘Not yet. Not yet.’”

His roommate, Jordan Morgan, didn’t have that problem. Morris said Morgan slept soundly.

When Michigan finally reached the bus, Smotrycz couldn’t shut up. As Vogrich tried to sleep, the Reading, Mass., native kept yapping about, well, everything.

“In terms of preparation, we did everything the same just like any other road game,” Smotrycz said. “Before we left the hotel, (I was) a little more anxious than usual, a little more hyped up.

“Vogrich pointed it out because he was trying to sleep and I wasn’t really letting him because I kept talking. I just couldn’t stop talking about the game, talking about what we were going to do, things that were happening.”

As they arrived to the arena and stepped out on the court for warmups, junior Corey Person looked around and went up to Stu Douglass, telling him to calm down Morris and Tim Hardaway Jr.

Then Douglass looked at them and they appeared calmer than Douglass, who said he was more nervous than he was his freshman year.

“You’d think as the years go on, the nerves kind of die down,” Douglass said. “But as a team we stayed poised.”

Then the game started and Michigan went on its major run, showing that the confidence they showed translated to the actual game. After, as Smotrycz re-told his story from the night before, he mentioned the third round.

It is lingo most aren’t too familiar with the NCAA’s ever-changing round names — last year this weekend was the first/second rounds instead of the second/third rounds — and he said he picked it up from watching those games Thursday night.

“I saw it last night on TV. I was talking to Vogrich last night and he’s like ‘So this is the second round,’” Smotrycz said. “I’m like ‘I think so.’

“He’s like ‘Niicee. Second round.’ But we’re definitely not satisfied.”

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