REVIEWING THE LAST TEN SEASONS OF MICHIGAN STATE AND MICHIGAN BASKETBALL

Time to update our 10-season retrospective on the basketball series between Michigan State and Michigan. The Spartans have won two in a row, but the Wolverine fanbase seems to think their team is still "ahead of" their rival, some would even say "dominating". We will soon show how their claims are based entirely on two separate three-game win-streaks, each of which was keyed by a one-point victory.

But for now, let's compare programs outside of the rivalry games. We look at overall season records, placement in the conference standings, and performance in the post-season. We choose a ten-year viewpoint because our number-system operates in "base ten", not because it's a convenient time-frame to make our team look good. (We used this viewpoint last year, and we will do it again in the future. We are not "cherry-picking" time-frames.)

Here is a review of the past 10 seasons of men's basketball at Michigan State University and University of Michigan. The following summarizes the success of each season from 2004-2005 to 2013-2014. (Results of this season are not included below.)

MICHIGAN STATE

• 2005:  26-7 second place / final four
• 2006:  22-12 sixth place / first round
• 2007:  23-12 seventh place / second round
• 2008:  27-9 fourth place / sweet sixteen
• 2009:  31-7 first place / final four
• 2010:  29-9 first place / final four
• 2011:  19-15 fourth place / first round
• 2012:  29-8 first place / sweet sixteen
• 2013:  27-9 second place / sweet sixteen
• 2014:  29-9 / second place / elite eight

MSU TEN YEAR TOTAL = 262-97 (.730)

Ten Winning Seasons, Ten NCAA Tournaments

Three Conference Regular Season Titles
Two Conference Tournament Titles
Three Sweet Sixteens
One Elite Eight

Three Final Fours

MICHIGAN

• 2005:  13-18 ninth place 
• 2006:  22-11 sixth place / nit
• 2007:  22-13 seventh place / nit
• 2008:  10-22 ninth place / ---
• 2009:  20-13 seventh place / second round
• 2010:  15-17 seventh place / no tournament
• 2011:  20-13 fourth place / second round
• 2012:  24-9 first place / first round
• 2013:  26-7 fourth place / final four
• 2014:  28-9 first place / elite eight

UM TEN YEAR TOTAL = 200-132 (.602) 

Seven Winning Seasons, Four NCAA Tournaments

Two Conference Regular Season Titles
Zero Conference Tournament Titles
One Elite Eight
One Final Four

Among other things, you can see that MSU has had three seasons with double-digit losses during the past decade, while UM has had only three seasons without double-digit losses. Overall, the Spartans lead the Wolverines in EVERY CATEGORY listed above. But you can't deny they've had a nice three-year run.

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