Michigan’s signature win of the first 2 months of the college basketball season was more of a scribble, an overtime squeaker against Creighton that was lost in the aftermath of more damning defeats to Alabama, Marquette and Boston College.

But Sunday against UConn, the Wolverines finally turned in a performance to be proud of - and maybe more importantly, one to hang their NCAA tournament hopes on.

Michigan beat the 15th-ranked Huskies, 68-63, to keep alive its slim tournament chances.

Early foul trouble by Jerome Dyson helped matters, but the Wolverines deserve all the credit for this victory.

Zack Novak outscrapped UConn's bigger, longer frontcourt for key rebounds. Stu Douglass broke out of a mini-shooting slump with three clutch 3-pointers. Manny Harris (18 points) was his usual explosive self. Things were so good even Anthony Wright was an offensive weapon.

Harris, all smiles after the game, said Sunday’s the win “could be a turning point” in Michigan’s so far underachieving season.

“It’s definitely a step,” he said. “I don’t know, but I know from here on out this team’s going to come out with a lot more hunger and fight to us, especially knowing the stretch that we got. We have no choice.”

It remains to be seen how good UConn is. The Huskies have lost 3 straight and likely will fall out of the Top 25 when the new poll is released Monday.

But by beating UConn, Michigan at least showed it still has some fight.

“Our back’s been against the wall for a while now,” said Novak, whose only 3-pointer put the Wolverines ahead for good with 1:30 to play. “It’s still against the wall, we know that. But hey, we’re not even worried about that. We’re just worried about playing as well as we can and just getting better and I think we’re doing that."

At 10-7, Michigan remains a long shot to make the NCAA tournament.

The Wolverines dug themselves so deep a hole before the new year, losing road games to Utah, Kansas and Indiana, along with the aforementioned poor performances in the Old Spice and Big Ten-ACC classics, that they probably need 11 Big Ten wins and a top-four conference finish to catch the selection committee’s eyes.

But there’s still enough time and enough schedule left for Michigan to get there.

The Wolverines begin the toughest stretch of their conference slate Wednesday at Wisconsin. They play at Purdue next weekend, and host Michigan State the following week.

After playing the 3 best teams in the Big Ten, Purdue's 3-game losing streak not withstanding, Michigan will know exactly where it stands.

“We know we got opportunities," Novak said. "This is a good way to get things going."

John Beilein, who rightfully stopped short of calling Sunday’s win a season-defining victory - “We got to continue to win right now,” he said - reminded his players last week how close they are to being what they had hoped in the preseason.

“I said to them a couple decisions or bounces of the ball in the Northwestern game, we’d be like in first or second place in the Big Ten,” Beilein said. “I said you could be on a streak now. But now a win over UConn, I think they’re starting to understand that we can play with a lot of people and that the margin of error is slimmer than they thought.”

The sad thing is, had Michigan played anything like this a month ago, a second straight tournament bid wouldn’t even be in question.

“Maybe a little too late we figured it out,” Douglass said. “But we’re starting to roll and we can’t look back, we just got to keep going.”

Dave Birkett covers University of Michigan football for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached by phone at 734-623-2552 or by e-mail at davidbirkett@annarbor.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.