ANN ARBOR >> Michigan has experienced a little bit of everything during the first month of the college basketball season.

The Wolverines have pulled out close wins that came down to the final possession. They’ve won in gritty fashion in games where they had to lean on their defense. They’ve steamrolled foes with their offensive balance and depth. They came up short in a neutral-site contest that went down to the wire.

They’ve rallied from double-digit deficits. They’ve squandered double-digit leads. But through it all, the Wolverines have never batted an eye.

“We are fearless. There’s nothing that can scare us, because we play together,” center Vlad Goldin said after Saturday’s 85-83 win over Iowa at Crisler Center.

Perhaps the best snapshot of that came in Michigan’s two early Big Ten games. In Tuesday’s conference opener at Wisconsin, the Wolverines fell behind by nine points twice in the first half at the Kohl Center, a venue where it’s as hard as any to win in the country.

Michigan never wilted. Instead, the Wolverines reeled the Badgers back in and countered each Wisconsin run with a spurt of their own. The two teams traded blows and baskets over the final 15 minutes before Michigan scored the final six points, en route to a 67-64 victory.

And on a night where Michigan’s guards struggled and combined for 18 points on 5-for-25 shooting, the Area 50-1 tandem of Danny Wolf, who wears No. 1, and Goldin, who wears No. 50, picked up the slack with a combined 44 points, 12 rebounds, eight blocked shots, six assists and four steals.

As Goldin put it, nobody cares about individual stats. The only thing everyone cares about is winning.

“We just play for each other,” Goldin said. “If I’m going to be efficient in the paint, all the shooters are going to (be open to) shoot. I know I believe in them and they’re going to make shots. Then, the next game, everybody is going to play on the shooters and it’s going to be my turn. We play off each other. We don’t try to force it.”

Head coach Dusty May was intentional in the transfers he targeted and the way he built the roster this offseason. He brought in Tre Donaldson, Roddy Gayle Jr., Rubin Jones, Goldin and Wolf because they’ve won a lot and seen a lot. No moment is too big for them.

That veteran presence matters in a game like Saturday’s, when the Wolverines coughed up a 16-point first-half advantage as their turnover woes resurfaced. Some teams, like last season’s Michigan squad, would unravel and let things snowball to the point of no recovery. But this group was unfazed.

“It’s just the kind of guys that we have,” said Will Tschetter, one of the few Wolverines who returned from last year’s team. “We have a lot of experienced dudes like Vlad, Tre, myself. We’ve been around the block, so we don’t really get frustrated in those moments. I think in years prior, maybe we would’ve got rattled and really let those runs compound themselves into (the opponent) having a double-digit lead.”

Even when the Hawkeyes used a late surge to erase Michigan’s 11-point second-half lead and pulled even with 20 seconds remaining, there was no panic or doubt in anyone’s eyes. No one was flustered in the huddle. There was no overthinking.

The Wolverines put what happened behind them and prevailed on a goaltending call on Gayle’s layup in the final seconds.

“The mood was the same as if we would have been up 15,” Tschetter said. “We always talk about staying neutral, and that’s what we did.”

Added Goldin: “It was a little bit too close than we wanted to, but because we stayed together, because nobody started worrying about all this different stuff, we were in a position to win the game.”

It’s the type of maturity and moxie that can’t be taught and has helped the Wolverines stay on track during an 8-1 start.

“As a leader, I’m not going to let this team get rattled,” Donaldson said. “I’ve got to keep it even-keeled. I understand that basketball is a game of runs; it’s going to happen. But the best teams are able to withstand those runs and come out with victories like we did.”