The Michigan Wolverines' basketball team holds a 6-0 record heading into tonight's Christmas Day showdown at Nebraska, though some may brush off the unblemished resume as nothing more than a byproduct of a supposedly soft schedule up to this point.
Perhaps the Maize and Blue deserve a bit more credit than they're receiving for their 6-0 start, especially when considering they're the only remaining unbeaten team in the Big Ten.
Hot starts to the season have been nothing new for the Wolverines in recent years. In fact, this is the third consecutive season Michigan has begun 6-0. Head coach Juwan Howard's club started 7-0 last year in his debut campaign, picking up memorable victories over Creighton and a pair of top 10 squads in North Carolina and Gonzaga along the way.
John Beilein's team started a school-record 17-0 during his final year on the job in 2018-19, playing like a dominant juggernaut during that stretch. Four ranked teams were beaten during the hot start, including an unforgettable 73-46 destruction of No. 8 Villanova on the Wildcats' home court and an 84-67 thrashing of No. 11 North Carolina at Crisler Center in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.
The Wolverines didn't lose their first game that year until Jan. 19 at Wisconsin. Though successful starts have been a staple for Michigan's teams in recent years, they've actually been quite rare as a whole over the past three decades, shedding some new appreciation on this club's 6-0 start.
Since Michigan's national championship campaign of 1988-89 (a span of 33 seasons), the Wolverines have begun 6-0 or better just nine times (counting this year). In other words, they've only done it 27.2 percent of the time since 1988-89.
Hot starts haven't always signaled long-term success though. Four of the eight Wolverine squads who began 6-0 from 1988-89 through 2019-20 missed the NCAA Tournament (not counting last year's club, with the Big Dance failing to take place).
On the flip side, a string of early-season wins has also been an indication of eventual postseason success at times, most notably in 1988-89 and 2012-13. The Maize and Blue started 11-0 in the former and 16-0 in the latter, going to the national championship each year.
Steve Fisher's '88-'89 club of course took home the title with a thrilling overtime victory over Seton Hall on basketball's grandest stage, while Beilein's '12-'13 suffered a narrow 82-76 defeat to Louisville in the national championship.
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