Michigan Basketball from 1984 to 1998
Here is the highest AP Top 25 regular season ranking Michigan achieved each season from 1984-1998. There has been much debate whether Michigan is performing at or below expecatations compared to their historical performance before sanctions cratered the program. Thought it was an interesting conversation. Thoughts?
84-85: #2
85-86: #2
86-87: NR
87-88: #7
88-89: #2
89-90: #3
90-91: NR
91-92: #11
92-93: #1
93-94: #3
94-95: #13
95-96: #16
96-97: #4
97-98: #12
During this time period Michigan lost in the first or second round 7 times, lost once in the sweet 16, once in the elite 8, made 3 final fours, and won 1 national championship.
February 21st, 2016 at 12:37 PM ^
Sorry to hijack, but where is the game preview for today's game?
February 21st, 2016 at 12:48 PM ^
February 21st, 2016 at 12:51 PM ^
February 21st, 2016 at 12:41 PM ^
Ahhh the golden years... Damn you Chris Webber
February 21st, 2016 at 12:54 PM ^
I'll see your golden years and will raise you an era:
1964 - ranked #2, won Big 10, made final four, lost to Duke in national semi-final
1965 - ranked #1, won Big 10, made final four, lost to UCLA in national championship game
1966 - ranked #7, won Big 10, lost to Kentucky in regional semi-final
February 21st, 2016 at 12:54 PM ^
Just imagine how different the perception of this program is nationally is if we went 5-1 in championship games instead of 1-5.
February 21st, 2016 at 12:57 PM ^
But at least we got one right?
Suck on that Bills & Viking fans.
February 21st, 2016 at 1:01 PM ^
February 21st, 2016 at 2:12 PM ^
February 21st, 2016 at 3:24 PM ^
February 21st, 2016 at 4:01 PM ^
I'd trade in .0002 seconds.
February 21st, 2016 at 4:39 PM ^
Seriously, for as much as you complain about being a Browns fan... Enough, man. If you don't like it, don't do it. The self-flagellation routine is perhaps only slightly older than the Browns' last championship trophy.
February 22nd, 2016 at 10:00 AM ^
1. I didnt bring up the Browns - somebody else did.
2. All I did was agree I'd happily trade being 0-4 in the Super Bowl for being 0-0
You know what else is old Bando? Your need to crack on every comment I make and find fault in it somehow. Why dont you give that a rest?
February 21st, 2016 at 5:06 PM ^
As for you mNoBold...
February 21st, 2016 at 4:05 PM ^
The problem is that we kept running into historically-good teams: the Wooden UCLA teams (1965), the undefeated IU team (1976), and the Laettner/Hurley/Hill Duke team (1992). Those teams were pretty much unstoppable.
1993 (UNC) and 2013 (Louisville) are the two that got away, although even then, both of them were #1 seeds, so not exactly easy pickings.
February 21st, 2016 at 3:44 PM ^
February 21st, 2016 at 12:54 PM ^
February 21st, 2016 at 12:58 PM ^
The 1976 squad was one of our best as well. Just couldn't get by a once in forever Indiana team.
February 21st, 2016 at 12:59 PM ^
February 21st, 2016 at 1:04 PM ^
Those rankings look pretty from 1994-1998, but that doesn't actually tell the story. Those were the years when I was in college, I was in the basketball band every year and thus was about as close to the team as a student could be, and everyone was going nuts about basketball in the afterglow of the fab 5 (but before the scandal broke).
During this era we signed a large quantity of highly ranked recruits even after the Fab Five:
- Maurice Taylor
- Jarrod Ward
- Maceo Baston'
- Willie Mitchell
- Travis Conlon
- Robert Traylor
- Albert White
- Louis Bullock
I could go on and on with that list. However, they amounted to essentially nothing despite the rankings you showed. They always had tons of promise, but the only thing they won was a B10 Tournament and an NIT (both of which later vacated). They consistently got into the tournament as a middling seed and then lost early. My biggest memory was a close game in the opening round when Ray Jackson dribbled the ball off his foot on the last play to secure a one-possession loss.
None of the players really developed or meshed on the floor. While Taylor, Baston, and Traylor had NBA careers, none were noteworthy. These teams were known for playing a disorganized style of ball more suited to a playground than a college gym. They got Fisher on the hot seat before the scandal ended his Michigan tenure.
So do you want to pay recruits with flashy star rankings who underperform, risk a scandal, but occassionally show up in the top 25? I remember these years as the dark days after the fab five, not the glory years.
1989-1993 was the glory period for our program in my lifetime.....and even that is somewhat tainted.
February 21st, 2016 at 1:13 PM ^
February 21st, 2016 at 1:45 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
February 21st, 2016 at 2:11 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
February 21st, 2016 at 4:15 PM ^
It's because that's how people justify Michigan's lack of success.
February 21st, 2016 at 7:21 PM ^
Because they are. Kentucky, Kansas, Duke, etc all filthy. It's not a secret in basketball circles.
February 21st, 2016 at 8:50 PM ^
February 21st, 2016 at 8:50 PM ^
February 21st, 2016 at 7:20 PM ^
Steve Fisher went to 3 final 4's and won a national title.
He may have underachieved a bit in the mid 90's but every program in the country goes through that. No one is immune. Roy Williams at North Carolina had the same thing happen to him not too long ago.
Bottom line is your program is more likely to be succesful when you sign McDonalds All Americans.
February 21st, 2016 at 1:06 PM ^
February 21st, 2016 at 1:11 PM ^
February 21st, 2016 at 1:26 PM ^
February 21st, 2016 at 1:28 PM ^
February 21st, 2016 at 1:32 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
February 21st, 2016 at 2:47 PM ^
that might be because their missing BY FAR their best offensive player, a senior projected to be a 1st round pick in LAST YEAR'S NBA draft.
A guy who has the 4th best offensive rating of any player in CBB this season currently (24% of the possessions used).
Take the three conference games MSU senior Denzel Valentine missed earlier this season and MSU averaged 7 points less per game in those contests than in their other Big Ten games this year. Plus those three games came against teams who aren't ranked in the top 4 in the Big Ten in defensive efficiency also.
February 21st, 2016 at 5:13 PM ^
but if you're going to recognize schedule when talking about the Valentine absense, you also have to recognize that Levert's numbers were acheived against a bad non-conf schedule (222nd in the country). He is (was) the best offensive player on this team but he wasn't close to the 4th best in the country, and would not have kept up those lofty numbers playing through the B1G.
February 21st, 2016 at 1:11 PM ^
The men's basketball team has a long legacy of being loaded with talent but not meeting expectations and playing down to their competition.
February 21st, 2016 at 2:50 PM ^
February 21st, 2016 at 8:16 PM ^
February 21st, 2016 at 1:28 PM ^
February 21st, 2016 at 1:30 PM ^
February 21st, 2016 at 1:35 PM ^
February 21st, 2016 at 2:50 PM ^
Talk to anyone who knows CBB inside and out and all will talk very highly of JB. Zero shot he's on hot seat and nor should he be either.
February 21st, 2016 at 1:36 PM ^
Michigan gets nothing from the bigs. Even the screens are soft.
February 21st, 2016 at 2:07 PM ^
Had nothing to do with it.
February 21st, 2016 at 2:33 PM ^
February 22nd, 2016 at 9:36 AM ^
Bill Frieder: Incredible recruiter, worst tourney coach EVER!
February 21st, 2016 at 2:39 PM ^
*Will the hockey team defend their national title this year? And the basketball team still sucks.
*Charles Woodson should have a breakout year in '96....and the basketball team still sucks.
*Steve Fisher was fired today...and the basketball team still sucks.
I wish I could remember his name and the site but the Internet was only a few years old at the time and I was still learning my way around.
I think many of the fans felt the same as this guy did. There was lots of frustration towards the basketball program but then in two years, the sanctions came and the program immediately turned into a dumpster fire. At that point we started to miss the days of underachieving. Kind of like all the frustrations we had over Jim Herrman's defenses on the football team and then we missed him once RichRod arrived.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
February 21st, 2016 at 2:57 PM ^
in a tough spot
February 21st, 2016 at 3:26 PM ^
Football was kicking ass during that period too. The state is one of the best producers of basketball talent, and despite MSU's recent dominance, we're still the flagship university.
A great first to restoring where we should be would be to put the first Fab Five Final Four banner back up, since we won that region with all eligible players.