Best season in big ten basketball history
With the recent performance of our team, it got me to wondering what some of the all time great big ten seasons are. Yes, it doesnt really matter that much, all that matters is how we do in the big dance.
But i have to wonder if our team wins out and finishes 16-1 in this brutal version of the big ten it will be one of the best seasons in my recent memory. I can't remember any team finishing the regular season with less than 3 conference losses actually. Any other big ten seasons come to mind to rival this one?
February 26th, 2021 at 3:18 PM ^
Didn't Indiana go like 36-0 in the 70s in 2 seasons?
February 26th, 2021 at 3:23 PM ^
'76 Hoosiers remain the last undefeated college team. Beat a Michigan team featuring Phil Hubbard three times, including the NCAA title game.
February 26th, 2021 at 3:58 PM ^
Yes, that 1976 Bobby Knight led Hoosier team had one of the greatest Big 10 conference seasons. They played a talented Michigan team 3 times including for the NCAA Championship Final for the title as mentioned.
This 2020-21 Michigan team will rank well inside a Top 10 Big 10 team ever if they were to win out. We're in rarified air as it stands as of today.
February 26th, 2021 at 5:38 PM ^
Old Indiana people will tell you that the 1975 team was better than the 1976 team, at least before May broke his arm.
My dad was at the game they lost (to Kentucky, in Dayton), and he became hooked on the NCAA tournament as a result. Which led to me becoming an addict as well.
February 26th, 2021 at 3:20 PM ^
Illinois went 15-1 in 2004-05. OSU went 15-1 in 2006-07. Both made the national championship game but lost. Lots of 2-loss Big Ten champs since then too.
February 26th, 2021 at 4:24 PM ^
That 04-05 Illinois team was really good. Can't forget how much their trio at guard dominated. Dee Brown, Luther Head, & Deron Williams. Brown was the star in college but his NBA career doesnt hold a candle to Deron.
February 26th, 2021 at 9:49 PM ^
Really good. That one Big Ten loss was to OSU on the final day of the regular season when some random guy hit a 3 with a few seconds left.
They had that amazing comeback vs Arizona before running into one of the best college teams ever in UNC.
February 26th, 2021 at 9:49 PM ^
Really good. That one Big Ten loss was to OSU on the final day of the regular season when some random guy hit a 3 with a few seconds left.
They had that amazing comeback vs Arizona before running into one of the best college teams ever in UNC.
February 26th, 2021 at 3:23 PM ^
Boy that 2016 Staee team comes to mind, they were special right up until they lost to Middle Tennessee
February 26th, 2021 at 5:02 PM ^
A beautiful memory of that team. Staee was a two seed but the media's most popular pick to win the title and they then proceeded to get boat raced by the 15 seed MTSU
February 26th, 2021 at 3:24 PM ^
I disagree that your assertion that, ‘all that matters is how we do in the big dance’. Winning a B1G championship is a big deal. Period. Add in the fact that you have an historically great B1G and we are dominating the competition, raising a banner of this year from a B1G championship means a lot - even if tournament success does not follow.
February 26th, 2021 at 3:30 PM ^
I think I said this is another recent thread, but I view a regular season B1G championship as a HUGE deal. Especially this year (what were our pre-season poll expectations again?!).
I would obviously celebrate a national championship with much glee, but a regular season B1G banner is almost as big a deal in my mind. It's a true badge of honor for battling through the gauntlet known as the Big Ten season.
February 26th, 2021 at 3:59 PM ^
I have to object a bit here, good sir. A regular season BIG championship is nowhere close to as big a deal as a national championship.
February 26th, 2021 at 4:35 PM ^
It would be a huge deal. Since 1987 Michigan has played in more National Championship games (5) than they have won the B1G (2 - one shared and one outright). Just to show how ridiculously hard it is to actually be that consistently good throughout the season rather than getting hot at the right time.
February 26th, 2021 at 4:57 PM ^
Yes, but the degree of difficulty has to be considered. Michigan won two straight Big Ten championships in the mid-'80s but the conference was horrible then. Winning this year is a pretty big deal.
As for getting hot at the right time, in the NCAA tournament you're playing against all the conferences. If you get to the Final Four you're pretty good. Gene Keady of Purdue was famous for winning regular-season championships and never doing much in the tournament (Elite Eight at best, I think).
February 26th, 2021 at 5:19 PM ^
This is comparing apples and oranges. Winning the Big Ten is great but the NCAA Tournament is the ultimate prize. You don’t want your team to peak in January, you want it to peak in March. We’ve been fortunate to have two excellent postseason coaches in Fisher and Beilein. That they were really good in the tournament doesn’t mean that it’s objectively easier to make the Final Four than win the regular season title. Most programs haven’t matched our FF/conference title ratio.
February 26th, 2021 at 4:01 PM ^
Winning the regular season B1G title is a big deal to me as well. By far, thee toughest conference in the nation this season. How many B1G team will make the Big Dance?? 8, 9 or 10 perhaps.
February 26th, 2021 at 5:23 PM ^
What year did Rutgers do good?
I saw them at the Greensboro Coliseum unbeaten in NCAA's big dance but I can't remember the year because I can't remember.............
February 26th, 2021 at 5:31 PM ^
Same year as IU, 1976. Gosh, Michigan had to play two unbeatens in a Final Four. That's kinda rough.
February 26th, 2021 at 5:54 PM ^
We’ve had tough matchups in our title games.
1965 - #1 overall seed UCLA coached by Wooden
1976 - #1 overall (and undefeated) Indiana
1989 - #3 seed Seton Hall
1992 - #1 overall Duke going for the repeat
1993 - #1 seed UNC
2013 - #1 overall Louisville
2018 - #1 seed Villanova
Of course you’re not going to face a slouch for the title, but some of these teams were historically dominant. Seton Hall was the only surprise. Every other time it was a chalk opponent.
February 26th, 2021 at 8:52 PM ^
+1.
This post should be rated higher. Great work on the research!
February 26th, 2021 at 9:23 PM ^
It's impressive that they got to all those games.
I've written this in other threads: Michigan was more talented than UNC in 1993. They should've won that game.
February 26th, 2021 at 11:34 PM ^
I would agree. UNC had a lot of good college players, but we had NBA talent.
Still, NC was a #1 seed and we had needed a last-second basket to beat them in the regular season. It was like a 55-45 kind of thing in our favor.
February 26th, 2021 at 3:27 PM ^
When i saw the thread title, I thought you were suggesting this is the best season because of the number of high level teams in the big ten. I don't think individually this Michigan is the best ever but the number of top teams in the big ten is ridiculous this year.
February 26th, 2021 at 3:33 PM ^
Strange thing is look up the 89 big ten season. Illinois may be the most loaded team from the big ten since 1980. Then we beat them. Also Indiana was really good and Iowa had BJ armstong and Roy Marble. Some amazing games that year. That was the height of basketball for me. I actually liked Iowa and Illinois a lot when they werent playing us. Like OSUs two stars this year and Illinois as well its fun to see players win games and not coaches win through ref manipulation ala Keady and Knight.
February 26th, 2021 at 3:38 PM ^
'91 was also stacked. Two Final Four teams, a top five team in the regular season that didn't make the Final Four, a couple other strong teams.
February 26th, 2021 at 6:30 PM ^
I have been watching since the 50's and 89 was certainly the best. Iowa was #1 preseason, Indiana won the conference championship, Illinois was the best team in the country, and Michigan won the national championship. BTN has a show about that season and the show is great, as was the season.
February 27th, 2021 at 7:29 PM ^
Yeah crazy year. Michigan knows how to pick their years to have their best teams.
February 26th, 2021 at 3:30 PM ^
The 1964-1965 team with Cazzy Russell went 13-1 in the Big Ten and lost to UCLA in the NCAA finals.
February 26th, 2021 at 3:45 PM ^
Ah yes, the good old days. A great year to be a Wolverine.
February 26th, 2021 at 3:31 PM ^
Really a shame this team didn't get to play a normal 20-game league schedule. Every chance we get to see them is a treat.
February 26th, 2021 at 3:33 PM ^
Penn State, IU, and Northwestern need to thank their lucky stars to only have to face this team once
February 26th, 2021 at 5:37 PM ^
Not to mention Iowa and OSU. And, presumably, Illinois.
February 26th, 2021 at 3:36 PM ^
I couldn’t agree more. It is so hard to win the National Championship. One off night and the season is over.
with that said, this deep looks very capable of a deep run.
February 26th, 2021 at 3:36 PM ^
According to RCMB this morning, there should be an asterisk on the champion this season.
On one hand, all time best season
On the other hand, this season doesn't count.
LOL at the interwebs.
February 26th, 2021 at 3:47 PM ^
Our own fanbase claimed it was dumb to be playing football once the losses started piling up, but are all on board for this shortened season with a winning basketball program.
Harbaugh should reach out to Howard for tips on being an effective coach. All you have to do is look at the basketball teams bench during the game to see a group of excited, engaged individuals. The exact opposite of what occurred on the football field this year.
February 26th, 2021 at 4:27 PM ^
Can we stop using the basketball team's success as a chance to take shots at football?
I know it's uncool to say anything positive about Harbaugh, but he's had a good career as a head coach. He had a crappy 2020, and responded by shaking up his staff. We'll see if it works out. In the meantime, let's just unironically enjoy what the hoops team is doing.
February 26th, 2021 at 4:41 PM ^
You do you, I’ll continue to call out the double standard.
February 26th, 2021 at 5:17 PM ^
To be fair, you did more than just point out the double standard.
February 26th, 2021 at 8:46 PM ^
+1
... and I'm still trying to figure out where I wrote about the football team.
I guess NYC Fan3's verbal on the SAT wasn't that great.
February 26th, 2021 at 4:58 PM ^
"Our own fanbase claimed it was dumb to be playing football once the losses started piling up" -- sure, man, maybe the fanbase in your head
February 26th, 2021 at 8:40 PM ^
Valenti went on and on about how the season didn't count when he thought that Michigan was going to slaughter Sparty this season in football. It's the perfect position to take: If you lose, it's what you predicted, and you have a handful of excuses. If you win, it's OMG hilarious! The perfect position taken by the perfect "scUM" bucket.
Side note - I love how Juwan Howard never backs down when Franny McCaffery is badgering the officials. Bill Frieder was intimidated by Bobby Knight.
February 26th, 2021 at 8:49 PM ^
Midway through the second last night there was back to back instances where JH was getting into the refs' asses. I thought, man this guy is gonna get T'd up.
The 5 minutes later Franny gets a T.
Usually, calls don't go Michigan's way like that (especially some missed flagrant elbows last night).
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLZ!
February 26th, 2021 at 3:56 PM ^
The '93 Indiana team with Calbert Cheaney went 17-1 and swept the season series with Michigan (15-3) in the Fab Five's 2nd year. Then they lost to Kansas in the Elite Eight. Both M and IU were 1-seeds in the NCAA Tourney.
February 26th, 2021 at 4:10 PM ^
chow doctor, as in veterinarian?
or chowder as in milk based soup featuring some clams?
inquiring minds want to know.
February 26th, 2021 at 4:21 PM ^
That IU team (which beat us twice by one point BTW) lost Alan Henderson to an ACL injury late in the season. Without him they were still good, but not national title-caliber.
February 26th, 2021 at 4:11 PM ^
Ok I'll bite and be that guy.
Yes, our boys are having a phenomenal season beating some top tier opponents not only at home but on the road as well.
But...
Its tough to compare this season to any other seasons in the past, as a HUGE part of college basketball is the energy/atmosphere that come along with packed arenas/gyms. A win is a win, but you have to wonder how much of a difference it makes to walk into some of these empty gyms and then walk out with a close win.
Let's just continue enjoying this ride as long as we can!!
February 26th, 2021 at 4:19 PM ^
I agree that things are different without fans, but it feels like you're saying that we're somehow reaping a net benefit from that. Why?
Why would having no fans in the arena specifically benefit Michigan?
February 26th, 2021 at 4:33 PM ^
I thought it pretty telling the Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Michigan State all had pretty poor seasons with no one in the stands. I think that boosts the home team, affects the away team, and is a big creator of their mystiques. A weapon they did not have.
February 26th, 2021 at 6:08 PM ^
I don’t know if any team has done it when the conference was this loaded. Not only are our boys winning, they are blowing out other really good teams.
I still think there should be two national champs in basketball. Regular season and tournament. Although I think this team is built for the tournament and it will be Michigan vs Gonzaga for the title. I think both are a notch above the rest and after the chaos and upsets, the two best will be there at the end.