Michigan #13 program in CBB over past 50 years

I theorize that something was up with posting earlier today, judging by the post below mine.  There was also another thread with a post that addressed a completely different topic.  Depending on the situation, Rakefight may have had a point.

That's what I get for not reading carefully.  I have football on the mind.

For basketball, yeah, can't argue with it.

But I could see an argument against Louisville, and a strong one against Georgetown. But you could make an argument the other way around. Frankly, their own rankings are skewed for teams from conferences that have had conference tournaments, because each is worth 3 points. Looks like Georgetown had like 6 of those before the Big Ten even had one. And they rank only 3 points ahead. 

One can say "well, the Big Ten should have had one then" but in a comparison sense I don't see how that has anything to do with how good a team is. Georgetown had a great decade, but not really a lot before or after (in this level of ranking at least).  Louisville had 12 Metro Conference titles and 11 Tourney titles.  Not exactly the Big Ten or Big East or ACC.  And then they upgraded to Conference USA.  Their system is flawed. They can say success is success, but winning the ACC is a hell of a lot harder than in conferences like that.

I'd even say over 50 years you could create an argument against U-Conn...but they've been SO high for the last decade, and so good, I wouldn't try. Syracuse and Arizona aren't that far ahead with 1 title and four final fours either, but they've been consistently higher year in and year out.

UCLA, NC, Duke, Indiana, Kentucky, and Kansas are your basketball blue bloods.  They're what Michigan, ND, Alabama, USC, OSU, etc. are to football.

Having said all that, I'm fine with 13.  We are historically a borderline Top 10 program, and after the 15 years before the last couple, had to drop some.  People under a certain age just don't remember us being really good.

We were better than MSU for most of that time.  MSU fans consider Jud Heathcote a legend but really, outside of Magic Johnson's two seasons (1977-79), he really wasn't that successful.  After Magic moved on, they collapsed, and Michigan resumed being the top program in-state for pretty much the rest of Heathcote's tenure (and Izzo's first couple years).  

Izzo (and our collapse following the scandal/Ellerbe hiring) obviously changed the dynamic, but even given Izzo's tremendous success, Michigan and MSU have the same number of Big Ten titles all-time (13). 

Don't give the scandal more power than what it had.  Fisher deserved to be fired.  But Brian Ellerbe was a terrible hire.  And either Amaker couldn't recruit, or he couldn't coach up the kids he recruited.  

Plus, the administration treated hoops like a stepchild.  Its facilities, including Crisler, were well behind State's.  

Remember, Fisher lost out on Mateen Cleaves in 1996.  And that MSU 2000 title team were full of players that were recruited without "Fab Five Scandal" being mentioned.  Considering we only had a two year postseason ban from 2002-2003, there was not a lot of years where "Fab Five Scandal" could be used against us.