A narrative has developed this season involving Michigan playing its best ball against the top competition, and that sentiment has been accurate, with the Wolverines posting an impressive 5-0 mark against teams ranked inside the AP top-25.
The program will attempt to run that record to 6-0 tomorrow afternoon when No. 24 Maryland comes to town.
U-M's incredible run against ranked foes dates back further than just the start of this season, however.
In fact, Michigan has compiled a 9-1 record in its last 10 contests against top-25 foes, dating back to mid-February of last season (with the lone loss occurring in last year's National Championship to Villanova).
The Wolverines are also 15-5 in their last 20 matchups against such competition, and hold a 6-4 mark against clubs ranked in the top-10 since late February of 2017.
Michigan hasn't just beaten all five of the ranked foes it has faced this season — it has dominated them, winning by an average of 16.6 points.
Granted, the 27-point victory at No. 8 Villanova skews those numbers a bit, but even when excluding that matchup, the average margin of victory is still 14.
The run the Maize and Blue are on against top-10 competition is perhaps even more impressive.
U-M has racked up a 4-1 record in its last five showdowns with top-10 squads, and a 5-2 mark in the last seven.
Some of the most notable victories during that span have included the two triumphs over top-5 Michigan State clubs last season, and the nine-point win over No. 8 Purdue in last year's Big Ten Tournament championship.
It's also worth noting how tight U-M's losses have been on the chart above.
Two of the five have been by a single point (69-68 against No. 9 Oregon in the 2017 NCAA Tournament, and 70-69 to No. 5 Purdue at Crisler in 2018), along with a four-point setback at No. 3 Purdue last season.
On top of that, only one of the five losses has occurred in Ann Arbor (last year against the Boilermakers), with the Maize and Blue posting an 8-1 record against top-25 foes at Crisler Center since the start of the 2016-17 campaign.
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