Michigan is the winningnest MBB team in the B1G in the past three regular seasons

Submitted by Erik_in_Dayton on

Here is a fun fact that occured to me which I don't think I've seen anyone point out:  Michigan has the best regular season record of any team in the B1G in the past three years.  The teams' records are as follows (invididual season records are ordered as 2014, 2013, 2012):

1. Michigan: 40-14 (15-3, 12-6, 13-5)

2. MSU: 38-16 (12-6, 13-5, 13-5)

3. OSU: 36-18 (10-8, 13-5, 13-5)

4. Wisconsin*: 36-18 (12-6, 12-6, 12-6)

5. Indiana: 32-22 (7-11, 14-4, 11-7)

6. Iowa: 26-28 (9-9, 9-9, 8-10)

7. Purdue: 23-31 (5-13, 8-10, 10-8)

8. Minnesota: 22-32 (8-10, 8-10, 6-12)

9. Illinois: 21-33 (7-11, 8-10, 6-12)

10. Nebraska: 20-34 (11-7, 5-13, 4-14)

11. Northwestern: 18-36 (6-12, 4-14, 8-10)

12. Penn State: 12-42 (6-12, 2-16, 4-14)

*May they be attainted and stripped of all rank and title, of all lands and holdings, and sentenced to death.

oriental andrew

March 12th, 2014 at 6:15 PM ^

I think "demise" is a bit hyperbolic, unless you mean "falling from assumed favorite to just a strong contender for the conference championship".  Sure, it was a relatively rough season, but they're still the second-winningest team in the conference over the last 3 seasons.  

What struck me is that there is clearly a top tier of 4 teams over the last 3 seasons - Michigan, msu, osu, and Wisconsin.  Indiana lacks consistency in a major way, Iowa is somewhere in the middle, and the rest are various shades of mediocre-at-best.  

gwkrlghl

March 12th, 2014 at 6:03 PM ^

but it's strange that we've kind of quietly emerged as the Big Ten's best program in the last 3 years. 1 title game appearance, 2 regular season B1G titles and 6-2 vs. the former kings of the Big Ten

MichiganG

March 12th, 2014 at 6:12 PM ^

Good to have confirmed, but also expected since the team has won the B1G two out of those three years and this year was with a rather large margin.

MGoDC

March 12th, 2014 at 11:34 PM ^

I'd actually say that's OSU for now -- they went to a Final Four and an Elite Eight whereas we got knocked out in the first round and made the Championship game. I think if we do well this year and they stumble we could take the lead in this regard.

gwkrlghl

March 12th, 2014 at 10:27 PM ^

They finally got back to full strength against Illinois....and went 1-2 to finish the season. I think statistically we can definitely say that they would have been 6-12 in conference if they were full strength which would have given them only 32 Big Ten wins and a tie for 5th. Don't argue, I used math

93Grad

March 12th, 2014 at 6:35 PM ^

over the last 5-6 years given Ohio's sanctions wiping out victories, etc.  Somehow, I feel like our argument is a more legit reflection of the future but who knows?

Leaders And Best

March 12th, 2014 at 7:33 PM ^

That MSU football statistic is extremely misleading. They have been one of the better teams in the Big Ten the last 5-6 years, but pretty far from the best like they have claimed for the last 3 years. Ohio State is a good 4-5 Big Ten wins ahead of them, and until this past year, PSU was ahead of them and Wisconsin tied with them (but Wisconsin also had the 2 straight Big Ten Championship Game wins which is huge feather in their cap). Both OSU and PSU were ineligible for the 2012 B1G champ game or one of them may have one more win. One similarity though is their 2013 season gave the statistic a little more credence, although no one at Michigan was touting this in basketball before this year unlike MSU football.

Big Ten Football wins 2008-2013 (including Championship Game):

OSU 40

MSU 36

PSU 33

Wisconsin 33

Leaders And Best

March 12th, 2014 at 8:30 PM ^

OSU and MSU are tied if you look at three years, but you couldn't make that claim until after the 2013 season. MSU has been touting this stat about being the best team in the Big Ten since 2011 (after OSU and PSU got hit with sanctions)--and that is the difference I was pointing out. I already said above that you can't discount now how good MSU has been after this year, but it wasn't until this year that it was close to the truth, and they are still tied with OSU for 3 years. Not to mention if OSU is in the 2012 B1G Championship game they may not even be tied (and if you don't count Championship games, OSU would be ahead of MSU by one.)

BTW, I think your math is off. This is what I get for the last 3 years in the Big Ten:

2011-2013 (including Championship Game):

Ohio State: 19

MSU: 19

Wisconsin: 18

PSU: 16

ChiCityWolverine

March 12th, 2014 at 6:56 PM ^

Pretty fascinating to look at the trends here. Most teams pretty much holding steady during this stretch except outlier '14 seasons for Nebraska and Indiana as well as a yearly decline at Purdue.

MichiganG

March 12th, 2014 at 7:02 PM ^

Rationale: since results are B1G only, these are the only three seasons with the current (soon-to-be-historic) 12-team format.  At least that's how I justified it in my mind for being less arbitrary.

Indonacious

March 12th, 2014 at 7:48 PM ^

Point taken. Still
Impressive even if you think arbitrary as 3 years is a solid sample size - not like he said since January or something. But three years isn't totally arbitrary. I suppose you could do something like 5, but that is kind of arbitrary as well.