Michigan Historically Good?

[Eight_Banners]

I haven't seen any discussion about what Michigan has done through the first two months of the 2025-2026 season. I know we're Kentucky fans, but historic results on the court should be recognized. I can't remember a team that has dominated their opponents the way Michigan has.

Since November 14, Michigan has won all but one of their games (8-1) by 25+ points (they won the other game by 18). They have scored 100+ in 7 out of 12 games. Their average margin of victory is 30.25.

Def.
Oakland 121-78 - worst loss of the season
Wake Forest 85-84
TCU 67-63 - tied for worst loss of the season
MTSU 86-61- worst loss of the season
SDSU 94-54 - worst loss of the season
Auburn 102-72 - worst loss of the season
Gonzaga 101-61 - worst loss of the season - I think this is also Mark Few's worst loss ever at Gonzaga
Rutgers 101-60 - worst loss of the season
Villanova 89-61 - worst loss of the season
Maryland 101-83
LaSalle 102-50 - worst loss of the season
McNeese State 112-71 - worst loss of the season

I've been a college basketball enthusiast for thirty-five years and am struggling to come up with a team that has done anything remotely close to what Michigan has in 12 games....And yet, they still aren't ranked #1.

Does anyone else remember a team dominating like this?

For reference, the 1995-96 Cats were 11-1 through 12 games, losing to UMass by 10, and winning the other 11 games by an average margin of 23.7.

 

[HipTer]

I thought Michigan would be good. They got probably the best available PF - maybe the best player overall - in the off season. They also picked up some more good pieces, but I thought with them playing 3 Bigs the shooting and having enough good Guard play might be a problem. Looks like it hasn't been so far. That gives me more hope for UK going with multiple non-shooting Bigs.

 

[akaukswoosh]

Gonzaga 101-61 - worst loss of the season - I think this is also Mark Few's worst loss ever at Gonzaga.

That's particularly impressive. That said I think they've peaked too soon.

 

[KYAnywhereEverywhere]

I haven't gotten to see them play, but would like to catch a game. What were the '11-12 Cats at record wise at this point in the season?

 

[Eight_Banners]

I haven't gotten to see them play, but would like to catch a game. What were the '11-12 Cats at record wise at this point in the season?

2011-2012:
11-1 through 12 games (lost @ Indiana)
13-1 through December 31

Through 12 wins, average margin of victory: 25.2

2014-2015:
12-0 through 12 games
13-0 through December 31

Through 12 games, average margin of victory: 29.1



To me, this comparison puts in perspective how good this Michigan team is. The 2014-15 Cats went 38-0 before losing their first game, and dominated teams early. Yet, they still have a smaller margin of victory than Michigan 25-26.

It'll be interesting to see how their season unfolds.

 

[MdWIldcat55]

The 2014-2015 Cats were undefeated, beating preseason #5 ranked Kansas by 32, #22 ranked UCLA by 41, #6 ranked UNC by 14, #10 ranked Texas by 12 and defending champion and #8 ranked Louisville at their place by 8 -- while pummeling lesser teams by up to 50 through the end of December. (Rankings are preseason, except in the case of UCLA, where it was their ranking before playing Kentucky.)

I'd rate that a much harder schedule than this year's Michigan, and the overall margin of victory was just one point less. And Kentucky's closest game was 8 points to ranked Louisville. Michigan had two wins by one point and four points.)

Any fair analysis would determine that Kentucky team was more dominant through the end of December 2014 than this year's Michigan team through December 2025.

So, no. Not "historically" dominant, if that means the most dominant team in the past two decades.

And for the record, I think Michigan has likely peaked too early, or at least has APPEARED to peak too early. Take away the weird fluke of the Gonzaga game, and you have a team played very closely twice, and then cruising through the early season cupcakes. They'll lose more than four games in the Big Ten regular season.

 

[anon1777473514]

I haven't seen any discussion about what Michigan has done through the first two months of the 2025-2026 season. I know we're Kentucky fans, but historic results on the court should be recognized. I can't remember a team that has dominated their opponents the way Michigan has.

Since November 14, Michigan has won all but one of their games (8-1) by 25+ points (they won the other game by 18). They have scored 100+ in 7 out of 12 games. Their average margin of victory is 30.25.

Def.
Oakland 121-78 - worst loss of the season
Wake Forest 85-84
TCU 67-63 - tied for worst loss of the season
MTSU 86-61- worst loss of the season
SDSU 94-54 - worst loss of the season
Auburn 102-72 - worst loss of the season
Gonzaga 101-61 - worst loss of the season - I think this is also Mark Few's worst loss ever at Gonzaga
Rutgers 101-60 - worst loss of the season
Villanova 89-61 - worst loss of the season
Maryland 101-83
LaSalle 102-50 - worst loss of the season
McNeese State 112-71 - worst loss of the season

I've been a college basketball enthusiast for thirty-five years and am struggling to come up with a team that has done anything remotely close to what Michigan has in 12 games....And yet, they still aren't ranked #1.

Does anyone else remember a team dominating like this?

For reference, the 1995-96 Cats were 11-1 through 12 games, losing to UMass by 10, and winning the other 11 games by an average margin of 23.7.

Two things:

1.) Michigan is historically dominant and trending towards being the best team ever analytically.

2.) They will still lose and you can come back to this post and remember that I said it. They will not win the title (as much as I’d actually prefer them to.)

 

[Goingfor9]

I haven't seen any discussion about what Michigan has done through the first two months of the 2025-2026 season. I know we're Kentucky fans, but historic results on the court should be recognized. I can't remember a team that has dominated their opponents the way Michigan has.

Since November 14, Michigan has won all but one of their games (8-1) by 25+ points (they won the other game by 18). They have scored 100+ in 7 out of 12 games. Their average margin of victory is 30.25.

Def.
Oakland 121-78 - worst loss of the season
Wake Forest 85-84
TCU 67-63 - tied for worst loss of the season
MTSU 86-61- worst loss of the season
SDSU 94-54 - worst loss of the season
Auburn 102-72 - worst loss of the season
Gonzaga 101-61 - worst loss of the season - I think this is also Mark Few's worst loss ever at Gonzaga
Rutgers 101-60 - worst loss of the season
Villanova 89-61 - worst loss of the season
Maryland 101-83
LaSalle 102-50 - worst loss of the season
McNeese State 112-71 - worst loss of the season

I've been a college basketball enthusiast for thirty-five years and am struggling to come up with a team that has done anything remotely close to what Michigan has in 12 games....And yet, they still aren't ranked #1.

Does anyone else remember a team dominating like this?

For reference, the 1995-96 Cats were 11-1 through 12 games, losing to UMass by 10, and winning the other 11 games by an average margin of 23.7.

The 2015 team held ucla to 7 points in a half. That team never reached its potential bc cal was so caught up on an undefeated season. Could Michigan win it all? Absolutely. But I haven’t seen a historically dominant team yet

 

[Rainmaker]

Michigan is going to be a very tough out. Going to take an off night from them and an opponent lights out to take them out. I’m a tad bias though as I do work for the basketball and football programs there currently.

I would love to see Kentucky back in that saddle and I believe it’s possible if we can get back on the right track. I bleed Kentucky Blue at the end of the day and Instill believe our squad this year can make some noise in March.

 

[anon1777473514]

The 2015 team held ucla to 7 points in a half. That team never reached its potential bc cal was so caught up on an undefeated season. Could Michigan win it all? Absolutely. But I haven’t seen a historically dominant team yet

True, but the 2015 team got progressively less dominant as the year continued, whereas Michigan had a lot of close games early and had gotten progressively more dominant.

2015 team

W 56-46 vs Columbia
W 89-86 in OT vs Ole Miss
W 70-64 in 2OT at TXAM
W 65-57 vs Vandy
W 71-69 at LSU
W 72-64 at Georgia

The 2015 team played in a very weak SEC. Michigan will have to keep the throttle down of course, but analytically, but they have a 38.59 efficiency per KenPom for a reason, which is better than 2015 — they are a juggernaut —- that will still lose after facing some type of adversity.

 

[gbl97]

Paging @Aike for metrics comparison.

 

[JMcClinton slaps like a grl]

Their schedule is pretty weak if you ask me. Gonzaga is the only top 25 team they have played?

 

[CrimsonCats_rivals]

Their schedule is pretty weak if you ask me. Gonzaga is the only top 25 team they have played?

Depends on how you define a strong schedule, honestly. Gonzaga is the only truly elite competition they’ve seen, but that was a blowout win, and they’re not really playing any tomato cans. La Salle (#253) and Rutgers (#160) are the only teams they’ve played outside the top 150 on Kenpom.

It’s hard for me to argue that they haven’t been one of the most dominant teams in my lifetime to start the season. That doesn’t mean that they already have the championship locked up though. The tournament is such a random and often fluky event that the best team doesn’t win it a lot of years.

 

[Anon1751335390]

Auburn was an all time team for 3/4ths of the year last season. They came back to earth a bit by the end.

 

[Eight_Banners]

Their schedule is pretty weak if you ask me. Gonzaga is the only top 25 team they have played?

It's not strong, but they beat Auburn (ranked #21 when they played) by 30 and Gonzaga (ranked #12 when they played) by 40.

They have played @TCU and @Maryland. Any true road game at a power conference school is tough. Just go look at how Kentucky has done in their first true road games the last 15 years or so.

I would not say Michigan has played a cupcake schedule, and they are still blowing out everyone.
They're averaging 96.8 p/g, and giving up 66.5 through 12 games.

1996 Cats: 90.5 / 69
2012 Cats: 82 / 59
2015 Cats: 76.8 / 48

 

[Aike]

Paging @Aike for metrics comparison.

At this point in the season, they are the strongest team I’ve modeled since I started doing this with the 2018 season.

Still a lot of time, obviously. But to be doing this in an era of more mature teams with players staying in school longer speaks even more highly of them.

Because ultimately, you can compare scores across seasons but you only produce your stats vs. the teams playing in this season.

It’s impossible to tell if you took this team and dropped it in 1996 if it would perform as well against that group. But It’s safe to say it would have held up extraordinarily well in the one and done era.

Something I’ve never done is go back and use my existing model to look at the 2015 Cats. Might be fun to see how they rated on 1/1 vs. going into the tournament.

 

[Vek96]

The have no weaknesses. Very well could go undefeated.

 

[GoneFishin916]

The 2015 team held ucla to 7 points in a half. That team never reached its potential bc cal was so caught up on an undefeated season. Could Michigan win it all? Absolutely. But I haven’t seen a historically dominant team yet

Game is completely different. Scoring is as high as it was in the early 90’s. Even Kentucky is two points from having five games of 100+

 

[*Fox2Monk*]

The 2014-2015 Cats were undefeated, beating preseason #5 ranked Kansas by 32, #22 ranked UCLA by 41, #6 ranked UNC by 14, #10 ranked Texas by 12 and defending champion and #8 ranked Louisville at their place by 8 -- while pummeling lesser teams by up to 50 through the end of December. (Rankings are preseason, except in the case of UCLA, where it was their ranking before playing Kentucky.)

I'd rate that a much harder schedule than this year's Michigan, and the overall margin of victory was just one point less. And Kentucky's closest game was 8 points to ranked Louisville. Michigan had two wins by one point and four points.)

Any fair analysis would determine that Kentucky team was more dominant through the end of December 2014 than this year's Michigan team through December 2025.

So, no. Not "historically" dominant, if that means the most dominant team in the past two decades.

And for the record, I think Michigan has likely peaked too early, or at least has APPEARED to peak too early. Take away the weird fluke of the Gonzaga game, and you have a team played very closely twice, and then cruising through the early season cupcakes. They'll lose more than four games in the Big Ten regular season.

We will see but they are a favorite for a title easily. I haven’t seen a team better this year. Duke, them, and Zona seem to be a tier above most teams. BYU pretty close to the next tier with Michigan State.

 

[Rainmaker]

We will see but they are a favorite for a title easily. I haven’t seen a team better this year. Duke, them, and Zona seem to be a tier above most teams. BYU pretty close to the next tier with Michigan State.

Im not sold on Duke at all. I think they drop 5+ in the ACC. Michigan is definitely the best and Arizona a distant second at this stage. A lot can happen though.

 

[CNJ1966]

Statistics are pretty overwhelming. Haven’t watched them play…about half afraid to. Lol

 

[Smeegs]

Their margins of victory have indeed been crazy. They’re making 40 to 50 pt wins look like normal routine.

But I doubt they can keep it up. That mid-season slump is coming eventually.

 

[Eight_Banners]

The 2014-2015 Cats were undefeated, beating preseason #5 ranked Kansas by 32, #22 ranked UCLA by 41, #6 ranked UNC by 14, #10 ranked Texas by 12 and defending champion and #8 ranked Louisville at their place by 8 -- while pummeling lesser teams by up to 50 through the end of December. (Rankings are preseason, except in the case of UCLA, where it was their ranking before playing Kentucky.)

I'd rate that a much harder schedule than this year's Michigan, and the overall margin of victory was just one point less. And Kentucky's closest game was 8 points to ranked Louisville. Michigan had two wins by one point and four points.)

Any fair analysis would determine that Kentucky team was more dominant through the end of December 2014 than this year's Michigan team through December 2025.

So, no. Not "historically" dominant, if that means the most dominant team in the past two decades.

And for the record, I think Michigan has likely peaked too early, or at least has APPEARED to peak too early. Take away the weird fluke of the Gonzaga game, and you have a team played very closely twice, and then cruising through the early season cupcakes. They'll lose more than four games in the Big Ten regular season.

By historically, I mean they have dominated teams in a way that is unusual by historical standards. When I think back across my thirty-five years or so of watching CBB, only a few teams have done what they are doing through the first two months of the season. The teams that came to mind for me are 1990s UNLV teams, 1990s Duke teams, 1996, 2012, and 2015 Wildcats. This Michigan team is better, at least statistically, than those teams.

Here is how they stack up offensively and defensively against those Cats teams through 12 games.

2026 Wolverines: 96.8ppg/66.5pa (Diff. 30.3)
1996 Cats: 90.5 / 69 (Diff. 21.5)
2012 Cats: 82 / 59 (Diff. 23)
2015 Cats: 76.8 / 48 (28.8)

I would say they are firmly in the conversation of historically best teams through 12 games. They will almost certainly lose, probably will have a tough stretch of games, but if they are anything like those three Cats teams they will unlikely lose more than 2 or 3, and will likely be a Final Four team.

As others have said, the 2015 Cats dominated early but struggled through the end of the season to blow teams out, and ultimately faced one of the best offenses ever (Wisconsin) that overcame probably the best defensive team ever. Michigan will get figured out and we'll see how they adjust.

 

[Eight_Banners]

Jan. 2:
Michigan 96
USC 66

That win brought their average margin of victory down.

They're crazy good.

 

[UKBB4Ever]

KenPomPom is fake numbers.

He removes possessions.

Michigan may be a truly great team? But no one will ever know that by the weatherman’s anal-ylitics.

 

[Vek96]

Jan. 2:
Michigan 96
USC 66

That win brought their average margin of victory down.

They're crazy good.

Michigan and Arizona are talked about as being way ahead of all the other teams. Not sure that Michigan isn’t also at least a notch or two better than than Arizona.

 

[RoyKent]

Crazy what is possible when you have elite players. Pope should consider it.

 

[bgoad72]

I’m not saying Michigan is t “historically good”. So far they have been very very good, but let’s wait till end of season to crown them.
Play at Michigan st
At duke
At Purdue
At Illinois
At iowa
And some other mediocre games.
if they smash Duke and pursue back to back on the road in February, then yes.

 

[MidseasonTweak]

Sometimes blowing out everyone isn't good. Eventually adversity will come knocking.

 

[rick64]

Michigan appears to be the team to beat so far this season.

 

[Cowtown Cat]

Crazy what is possible when you have elite players. Pope should consider it.

How many guys do they have that are elite?! The UAB transfer maybe. I’m genuinely asking.

 

[anon1777473514]

How many guys do they have that are elite?! The UAB transfer maybe. I’m genuinely asking.

You’re correct. They are a balanced team. Only ELITE player is Yaxel and they win as a unit.

2025-26 Michigan Wolverines Men's Roster and Stats | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com

Check out the detailed 2025-26 Michigan Wolverines Roster and Stats for College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com

www.sports-reference.com

 

[Catlogic1552]

Crazy what is possible when you have elite players. Pope should consider it.

Yep. Dusty May is in his 2nd year as well.

 

[Eight_Banners]

Where does this Michigan team fit into the historical conversation?

 

[The_Answer1313_rivals]

They finished with an efficiency margin of 39.70. For reference 2015 UK was 36.91 and 2012 UK was 32.59.

So in other words they were about 2 points better than the average team this year than 2015 UK was in 2015.

It's a little hard to tell tho. In ways this is very much like 2015. You had UK but you also had teams like Wisconsin, Duke and Arizona also with very high EMs.

This year, there were THREE teams above 37 (Michigan, Duke and Arizona).

Now is this just a matter of the top teams further separating themselves or are they actually historically good I don't know. If 2015 UK and 2026 Michigan met up,, who would win more often? I dunno.

People have varying opinions on NIL I've seen on this board. Some say it makes the gap wider and others say it sorta levels things but if anything we are seeing.......well all 1 seeds made it to the final four last season and this season you definitely had a gap at the top with three teams (two of which just happened to have to play each other otherwise than would have been the finals game)

 

[TFCat11]

Have to be Top 5 all time, and definitely not #5!

This was a STRONG season, with several teams capable of winning it all, and they went through several of them like a knife through hot butter!

There’s only 2 things a program needs to dominate in this NIL era…

1. $$$ for players.
2. A damn good coach and motivator to build the right team with the $$$.

 

[Johnnie Africa]

Remarkable how a team of transfers meshed so quickly

 

[CUJO_1970]

There were at least ten teams out there this season that Kentucky couldn't hope to contend with, and several teams in which the outcome would be downright ugly. Can you imagine this goofy Pope team going up against Michigan?

It's time for Pope to do something NOW and do something big. It's early, but at this point he looks like he's doing the same thing as last year and we will be doing good to even have the talent last year's team did. Pope needs to pull a rabbit out of his hat and he needs to do it right now.

 

[bigblueinsanity (the real)]

Imo depends on how you define great. If directly matched up against other great teams from history? Then no.

If viewed as how much better they were than their competitors of that season? Then yes. They dominated Arizona who was the second best team all season and even injured still handled a very good UConn team.

 

[anon1777473514]

I actually think this team should be in conversation for greatest of all time given how efficient the college game has become. They weren’t just good — they absolutely destroyed everything in their path. They’re up there with 1990 UNLV, 1992 Duke, 1996 Kentucky, 2001 Duke, 2009 North Carolina in my lifetime.