More impressive regular season; M Football or M Basketball
Didn't think it possible, but I think the basketball team outdid the football team. Big Ten Champs. Congrats to everyone, special shout outs to Coach B, Stu, Zack, and of course the best damn point guard in the USA, the pride of Columbus, Trey Burke
The simple fact that this thread exists right now makes me so happy...
Tough call though on which is better. I guess I'd go with b-ball. Michigan is about championships. Both senior classes deserve a lot of credit for what they've been through and what they've done for the university and its fans. They make me proud to be a 2-time Mich grad (soon to be 3-time), and a Mich fan for life.
It's a very tough call. Basketball did achieve something that we haven't done in 26 years and that amazingly even our 89 national championship team and the Fab Five couldn't do so that has to take the cake as more impressive.
For me personally, it is football. The improvement of the defense was incredible not just because of how atrocious we were the year prior but especially after all the metrics on here last summer that said the best we could hope for was an improvement to a defense that was middle of the pack ranked in the 60's nationally.
I don't believe Hoke would have been nearly as successful recruiting so far without our tremendous improvement this last season so as far as importance of regular seasons go I am picking football but for more impressive it is basketball.
Beats say..... doing real well in the the NCAA's, or winning the Sugar Bowl easy IMO. Expectations were very simular with the Basketball and Football teams one team winning a share of the (big ten) title one did not. End of story and what I believe on the subject. Go BLUE and Go coach Hoke get us at least a share of the BTT and we'll all be happy.
For me it is not even close and this is why. Basketball has many more games. Good and bad fortune have less of an impact. In basketball a good or bad break impacts your record by 3%. You also have to play everyone. Also because the sample space is larger the breaks even out. The football team had a lot of good fortune. Notre Dame had the game won on multiple fronts and thankfully lost it. We did not have to play Wisconsin. We were completely outcoached in the OSU game and won because a true frosh who had lit us up missed a wide open receiver for a TD. And lastly we won a bowl game because a call rightfully got overturned and someone missed a FG. Those are all bang bang situations and they could all just as easily go against you. In football you can get a favorable schedule if the teams that matter are at home. Not so in basketball where you play most teams twice, once at home and once away.
The other major item is that the football team had pretty much everyone returning including the QB. The basketball team lost the equivalent of their QB. Now basketball is not as technical as football. It is easier for a basketball player to step in. However, no one expected Burke to be arguably the best PG in the Big10 by the end of his freshmen year. In football this would be equivalent to someone graduating their QB and the frosh replacement being first team all Big10.
Lastly, the basketball team was thinner in terms of the recruting ranking of the players on the floor and number of bodies available. For all practical purposes this team ran six deep. They won despite Hardaway strugling and multple players having to play out of position. We had a 6 4 power forward and a shooting forwardhaving to play backup center. I still find it amazing this team won 13 games in the Big10. I really look forward to what Beilein can do talent and depth.
So does bad fortune. Change a couple of calls in the Iowa game, and that one could be won. A different call on 4th down, maybe less win, or a QB who wasn't oozing puss on his arm, and MSU might be different. Then you have a team playing for the Big Ten Championship (and still getting into a BCS game if they lose), or maybe even a National Championship. Did it happen? No. What happens happen. But you can't just take all the wins that had some good luck involved, and discount all the games we lost where bad luck was involved. They usually equal out. (Other than 2010, where every close game went our way, and every big one that wasn't close didn't).
You can say we were outcoached against OSU...but we coached well enough to win the game. That roads says we were outcoached at Iowa, and at home vs. Purdue, costing us an outright championship. But that discounts how players play, and other teams that are putting in a lot of effort and have coaching too. It's not fair to Beilein or Hoke.
We somehow overthrew the fetid corpulence of the BCS and made it to the pomised land of an NCAA Football playoff?
And NOBODY told me?!!!
11-2 during a transition year? Football.