Michigan will begin its quest for a National Championship tonight when it takes on Montana at 9:20 ET in Des Moines, Iowa, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Outside of the mid '90s, Michigan has fared very well in the Round of 64, dating back to 1985 when the Tournament first expanded to 64 teams.
The Big Dance featured a varying number of clubs in the years leading up to '85, with 53 participating in 1984, 52 in 1983, 48 from 1980-82, 40 in 1979, 32 from 1975-78, 25 from 1969-74, and so on.
The first NCAA Tournament was held in 1939, and featured just eight teams (Oregon defeated Ohio State to take home the title).
Michigan holds an all-time record of 16-4 in the Round of 64, including a 6-2 mark under current head coach John Beilein (who took over in 2007-08).
Despite winning the Big Ten in both 1985 and 1986, Michigan struggled mightily in the NCAA Tournament each of those years under head coach Bill Frieder.
The No. 1-seeded Wolverines squeaked by 16-seeded Fairleigh Dickinson, 59-55, in 1985, only to be upset by 8-seeded Villanova in the second round (the Wildcats went on to win the National Championship).
A similar script was followed in 1986 when U-M — a 2-seed — scraped by Akron, 70-64, in the first round, only to once again be upset in the second round by 7-seeded Iowa State.
Michigan's 1989 National Championship club actually struggled mightily with 14-seeded Xavier in the first round, defeating it 92-87 after trailing by three at halftime. The game was tied for U-M's third closest contest during its run to the championship.
Head coach Steve Fisher wasn't able to duplicate the March magic the following year when his program entered the NCAA Tournament as a 3-seed. The Wolverines took down Illinois State, 76-70, in the first round, but then fell to 11-seed Loyola-Marymount, 149-115, in what stands as the highest-scoring game in NCAA Tournament history.
The Lions scored 84 points in the second half, and advanced all the way to the Elite Eight before falling to UNLV, 131-101 (Loyola-Marymount averaged 105.7 points in four Tournament games that year).
Fisher's Fab Five club in 1992 actually struggled with Temple (won 73-66) in the first round of the 1992 Big Dance before advancing to the National Title, but blew away an overmatched Coastal Carolina squad, 84-53, the following year on its second straight trip to the championship game.
Things quickly went downhill for Fisher in March after that though.
The Maize and Blue squeaked by 14-seeded Pepperdine in overtime (78-74) in 1994 on their way to the Elite Eight, before falling in the first round each of the next two years — to Western Kentucky in overtime in 1995, and then to Texas in 1996.
Each of Beilein's first two Round of 64 games were quite memorable at Michigan, first in 2009 with a nail-biting 62-59 win over Clemson (the program's first in the Big Dance since 1998), and then a 30-point annihilation of Tennessee in 2011.
First round victories in 2013 and 2014 over South Dakota State and Wofford, respectively, were rather uneventful, but were followed by exciting runs to the National Championship in the former and the Elite Eight in the latter.
After pulling out a win over Tulsa in one of the 2016 play-in games, the Wolverines found themselves a rare underdog as an 11-seed in the first round, going up against 6-seeded Notre Dame. They nearly pulled off the upset, however, before falling 70-63.
The 2017 Big Dance provided one of the most thrilling Round of 64 games in Michigan history, with the Maize and Blue taking down Oklahoma State, 92-91, in what was an action-packed — and yet cleanly played — game.
The two clubs both shot over 43 percent from three, over 51 percent from the floor and committed a total of 14 turnovers.
Last year's first round game against Montana was basically the opposite, with both programs struggling mightily from the floor (26 total turnovers), en route to low-scoring 61-47 victory by U-M.
A triumph tonight over Montana would improve Michigan's record to 17-4 all-time in the Round of 64.
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