Blowouts in the NCAA Tournament are obviously rare, but Michigan managed to pick up a comfortable 74-55 victory over Montana last night in the first round.
Whether or not a 19-point triumph constitutes as a 'blowout' can certainly be debated, but the win was actually tied for Michigan's ninth largest margin of victory ever in the Big Dance.
'Tied for ninth largest' may not jump off the page upon first hearing it, but it takes on a bit more significance when considering last night was Michigan's 87th NCAA Tournament game all time (the Wolverines hold a 60-27 record in those 87).
To get a better appreciation of how rare easy victories are to come by in the Big Dance, we've taken a closer look at U-M's 10 biggest margins of victory ever in the annual event, dating back to its first appearance in 1948.
Of Michigan's 10 largest margins of victory all-time in the NCAA Tournament, five have occurred under current head coach John Beilein:
• 75-45 over Tennessee in 2011
• 78-53 over VCU in 2013
• 79-59 over Florida in 2013
• 99-72 over Texas A&M in 2018
• 74-55 over Montana last night
In addition, of the Wolverines' 87 all-time NCAA Tournament games, 27 (31 percent) have come under Beilein.
U-M's largest margin of victory ever in the Big Dance, however, came against Virginia in the 1989 Elite Eight during the program's magical run to the National Title.
The 102-65 drubbing (37-point margin) is actually one of only three 30-point triumphs in the Big Dance for U-M (an 84-53 victory over Coastal Carolina in 1993 and the aforementioned 75-45 win over Tennessee in 2011 are the other two).
Perhaps even more impressively, four of the blowouts on the list above have come in either the Sweet Sixteen or Elite Eight, with two occurring against top-5 seeds — No. 3 Florida in 2013 and No. 5 Virginia in 1989.
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