In resuming Big Ten play last week, Michigan resumed playing like a top-five team.
The Wolverines were arguably the nation's best team the first four weeks of the season. From Nov. 6, 2018 through Dec. 2, 2018, they leapt to an 8-0 start by beating each opponent by at least 17 points. These were not all scrubs either. Far from it. Four of these opponents are in the KenPom top 100, and three are in the KenPom top 25 (#6 North Carolina, #17 Purdue and #24 Villanova). It’s hard to say what was more impressive: U-M registering its biggest road win against a ranked foe in school history at Villanova or leaving Hall-of-Famer Roy Williams so frustrated that he remarked this is the worst job he’s done as a head coach in 31 years.
Accordingly, T-Rank, a predictive college basketball model in the same vein as KenPom which allows users to filter how teams have performed in certain date ranges, ranked Michigan first for the period from Nov. 6, 2018 through Dec. 2, 2018. Better than Duke. Better than Virginia.
The conversation quickly became how U-M was ready to make another run to the Final Four.
Throughout the rest of December, Michigan continued to win games and saw its ranking in the AP poll slowly climb from fifth to fourth and then to second, where it currently stands.
However, those paying attention knew that this wasn’t the same Michigan team as before.
