Michigan Basketball from 1984 to 1998

Submitted by Maizen on

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.

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mGrowOld

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

 

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snarling wolverine

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.

 

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AC1997

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.

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Maizen

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.

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MichiganMAN47

February 21st, 2016 at 1:06 PM ^

That's higher than I would have guessed. While we have had a couple disappointing years, I still am thankful we have John Beilein as our guy.

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Rabbit21

February 21st, 2016 at 1:32 PM ^

Dude, the one thing Beilein could point to was an ultra effective offense. The team either can't shoot or has been super easily defended for weeks now and looks worse and worse against competent opposition, at some point it's time to worry, and I think we're there. We don't even have the supposed bread and butter to rely on.



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LV Sports Bettor

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. 



 

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TrueBlue2003

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.

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UMxWolverines

February 21st, 2016 at 8:16 PM ^

You could say the same thing about the football team in the 90s and 2000s. Let's be honest, the only team of the 3 major at Michigan to meet expectations is hockey. 10 frozen fours in the 90s and 2000s is damn good. And growing up in late elementary and junior high I remember wanting nothing more than to see us win another football national title but knowing that really the only team with a real chance was the hockey team.

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Blue Durham

February 21st, 2016 at 2:33 PM ^

It would be a little more informative is you separate out the Frieder from from Fisher years, particularly comparing the regular season to the NCAA tournament. Freider had every bit as much talent as Fisher, but the team always under-performed in the NCAA's. One year Michigan was a #1 seed and almost lost in the first round to Farleigh-Dickenson. Best tourney for Freider was getting to the 3rd round.

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WolverineHistorian

February 21st, 2016 at 2:39 PM ^

There used to be a website in the 90's (towards the end of the Steve Fisher years) I can't remember what it was called but it was run by a Michigan fan who despised how much the basketball team underachieved. So he refused to cover them except to announce daily that the basketball team still sucks. Headlines would usually be like...

*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.



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cp4three2

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. 

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