CHARLOTTE - Nobody thinks the Michigan basketball team can beat Duke. So, what’s new? The Wolverines are used to being underdogs.

“I think we definitely love it. We embrace it completely,” junior Stu Douglass says of the underdog label. “I think if you don’t embrace it, if we hadn’t embraced it this year, we wouldn’t be where we are.”

These Wolverines have been filling that role much longer than the 48-hour turnaround between NCAA tournament games at Time Warner Cable Arena here this weekend.

And it goes back further than just this season, which Duke started as the No. 1 team in almost every national preseason poll while the Wolverines were tabbed to finish at the bottom of their own conference standings.

Darius Morris

Before John Beilein started calling, the most likely way some members of the Michigan roster would find themselves preparing to face Duke in the NCAA tournament was as a No. 16-seeded champion of a mid-major conference taking on the Blue Devils in the first round.

“I think, individually, everybody throughout their basketball career has been an underdog,” sophomore guard Darius Morris said. “If you look at our players and where they were ranked coming out of high school, I think we’ve all embraced that chip we play with on our shoulder.

“And I think it definitely helps us out there. It’s the reason we fight so hard, just to prove everybody wrong.”

Morris was the only 4-star high school recruit that will be in Michigan’s starting lineup when it takes on Duke on Sunday (2:30 p.m., CBS). Douglas, Zack Novak, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Jordan Morgan were all 3-star recruits according to Rivals.com.

Duke’s roster is so packed with talent that two of its 5-star recruits -- freshman guard Kyrie Irving and sophomore forward Ryan Kelly - will come off the bench.

“We have a group of guys that, coming up, kind of fulfilled that underdog role,” Novak said. “Look at a kid like Tim Hardaway. I think he had two big-time (college) offers and just look how well he’s playing. He’s one of the best freshmen in the country. Jordan Morgan, same thing.

“You use it to fuel yourself a little bit, but at the same time you don’t pay attention to it. You just believe in yourself and if you believe in yourself, good things can happen.”

Rich Rezler covers sports for AnnArbor.com. Contact him at 734-623-2553 or richrezler@annarbor.com.