It's difficult to pick up wins over ranked squads in college basketball, and even more difficult to blow them out. The latter is precisely what the Michigan Wolverines did to No. 16 Minnesota last night, destroying it to the tune of 82-57 at Crisler Center.
Hefty victories over ranked teams are becoming a bit of a trend for head coach Juwan Howard's crew in his first year-plus on the job. Last night's beatdown of Minnesota was the Maize and Blue's sixth victory since the start of last year over an Associated Press top 25 team, and three of those six have come in blowout fashion.
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What constitutes as a blowout can obviously be debated, but for argument's sake, we've defined it as a victory that came by 15 or more points. No team in the Big Ten has more such wins than Michigan does since the start of last season, and Purdue is the only other league squad who can match it.
Howard began his U-M coaching career with a bang last season, picking up back-to-back ranked wins over No. 6 North Carolina and No. 8 Gonzaga Nov. 28-29 in the Battle 4 Atlantis.
The latter came in an 82-64 beatdown of the Bulldogs (something that simply doesn't happen to head coach Mark Few's teams) and signified Howard's first blowout of a top 25 team.
The second actually occurred this past Sunday at Crisler Center, when the Wolverines blew out a red-hot No. 19 Northwestern crew to the tune of 85-66. An annihilation of a similarly hot Gopher squad wasn't necessarily expected last night, but nevertheless didn't come as a complete shock.
So what has led Michigan to rise to the challenge in such impressive fashion several times during Howard's tenure? This year, in particular, has seen the club play efficient offense and stifling defense in such games, while Howard and his staff are proving they're pretty darned good at scouting opponents and outcoaching their competitors.
Four different Big Ten teams have beaten more top 25 opponents than the six U-M has since the start of last season (Iowa, Michigan State, Wisconsin and Ohio State), but again, Purdue is the only club who has as many comfortable triumphs over ranked foes.
The Boilermakers' three wins against top 25 opponents that came by at least 15 points since 2019-20 began are as follows — a 69-40 beatdown of No. 5 Virginia on Dec. 4 last season, a 71-42 annihilation of No. 8 Michigan State on Jan. 12 last year and a 104-68 blowout of No. 17 Iowa on Feb. 5 last season.
To further exemplify how difficult it is to blow out ranked teams, we took a look at how often (or in this case, seldom) five premier programs in the sport outside the Big Ten have done it since 2019-20 began.
Duke, Kansas, Kentucky and North Carolina have no such victories, while Villanova only has one — a 76-61 win over No. 13 Butler last January.
Below is a closer look at how many blowout wins over top 25 squads each Big Ten club has since last season began:
• 3 — Michigan and Purdue
• 2 — Iowa, Michigan State, Minnesota, Ohio State and Rutgers
• 1 — Illinois, Indiana, Penn State and Wisconsin
• 0 — Maryland, Nebraska and Northwestern
Michigan and Purdue are also tied with one another for fifth place in the Big Ten in triumphs over ranked clubs since the start of 2019-20. The Wolverines and Boilermakers each have six such victories, while Iowa, believe it or not, leads the way with 10.
Every Big Ten member has beaten at least three top 25 opponents since last year began, with the exception of Nebraska, who has zero.
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