Michigan sophomore Darius Morris gives an interview for the media after the team's placement was announced for the NCAA basketball tournament during "Selection Sunday" at Crisler Arena on Sunday.

Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com

CHARLOTTE — The Michigan plane landed in Charlotte on Wednesday evening and Darius Morris woke up from his in-flight nap like it was his birthday. With boundless excitement about playing in the NCAA tournament, he kept saying ‘We here,’ to anyone who would listen.

The enthusiasm makes sense considering how the Michigan basketball team arrived at this point after starting 1-6 in the Big Ten. The Wolverines face No. 9 Tennessee on Friday (12:40 p.m., TruTV).

“You actually accomplished a goal that you strived really, really hard for and it’s something that you dream about, it’s actually here,” Morris said. “It’s one of those rare moments in life where you set a goal, you accomplish it and now you’re soaking it all in.

“…It’s not NIT, not another Big Ten road game, this is the NCAA tournament. This is what you work hard for and you’re finally here.”

Junior Stu Douglass, who is one of two Michigan players to have played during the Wolverines’ last NCAA tournament appearance in 2009, felt the excitement when the team pulled up to the team hotel and saw all the NCAA tournament signs around downtown Charlotte.

Freshman Evan Smotrycz saw the balloons in the hotel greeting them and then the cookies in their rooms with a ‘M’ on them and thought it was extremely cool.

“You could even feel,” Douglass said. “Just from walking in there, how different it was than any other trip.”

All the excitement, though, subsided when Michigan stepped on the Time Warner Cable Arena court Thursday afternoon for its open practice. Instead of going lightly through drills and playing ‘Knockout’ or having a slam dunk contest like some teams do, Michigan went through a 40-minute workout.

There was some fun to be seen — Smotrycz missed a dunk and Morris spent the first few moments of practice dribbling in circles around assistant coach Bacari Alexander —but mostly it was a serious practice.

Part of it is because of a message Michigan coach John Beilein has been stressing throughout the week — even bringing it up soon after the Wolverines made the 68-team field Sunday.

“You can’t ever count on this to happen again,” Beilein said. “You can’t ever count on that. There’s some really, our goal is at Michigan to become very consistent, that we’re in this environment every year, but the truth is all kinds of things happen and you don’t know, whether it’s injury, sickness, transfers, all kinds of things happen where you might not be able to be here.

“So really embrace it. And we have.”

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