Postseason achievements trump regular-season accolades in a big way in the college basketball world, with teams' success measured by what they do during the NCAA Tournament.
The Michigan Wolverines' basketball team won their league's regular-season championship this year, a feather that is oftentimes in the cap of clubs who go on to win the NCAA Tournament's national championship.
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Have regular-season titles been a requirement for teams who enter the NCAA Tournament with hopes of a national title? Absolutely not, but it has been a notch in the belts of the majority of national champions over the past 30 years.
Dating back to Michigan's last national title in 1989, 23 of the 31 champions (74.1 percent) won their respective conference's regular season. The lone eight who didn't were Michigan in 1989, Arizona in 1997, Connecticut in 2004, Florida in 2006, Connecticut in 2011, Connecticut in 2014, Duke in 2015 and Villanova in 2018.
Five of the aforementioned eight finished in second place in their conference's regular-season race, while U-M in 1989 concluded in third in the Big Ten, Arizona in 1997 in fifth in the Pac-10 and Connecticut in 2011 in a tie for ninth place in the Big East.
