Good point. In that case it’s a pretty accurate measure for a given year across teams, but difficult to compare 14/15 to 15/16 using KP because the formula doesn’t measure across years. In other words it doesn’t account for just how bad the B10 was last year in relation to 14/14, which was clearly better.
Long story short is that both editions were relatively equal to me, but I give the nod to the 14/15 team based on my eye test and how competitive they were vs legit teams
If you’re looking at that gauntlet for a month of 8 games if all teams stay healthy how many games is Michigan going to win? They’re likely to be underdogs in 6 of those games MSU/IU/Wisc x2. This team will have to play above their heads to end up 3-3 against those teams.
I can see how someone could view 14/15 in a more favorable perspective. Last year was real rough seeing them get blown off the court against Xavier/IU/MSU/Iowa.
Also good points from you.
Maybe some people would rather ignore injuries, when talking about how successful a team was, or should’ve/could’ve been, but I think it is a relevant point for Mich over the last two seasons. 14/15 we had no Walton or Caris for conference play (mostly), so what we did accomplish that year may be seen as a success by the healthy players. We still lost to NJIT and Eastern, with those guys though…which leads to talking about the 15/16 injuries: Zak’s surgery obviously affected him/set him back, and we lost Caris for the conference play. Before Zak had surgery, he was obviously the best player on our team in 14/15 and looked like the light was really coming on for him; and, before Caris’ injury, he looked like a unanimous All-B1G selection, and a lottery pick (was putting up ridiculous numbers, second only to Valentine who admittedly did it against better competition).
So, at least in terms of how good the team should’ve been and the number of wins they should’ve had, if it weren’t for injuries, I would say the 15/16 team was better. But, again, since injuries DID happen (and are incredibly random), this is all probably moot.
Edit: I realized I didnt even take into account losing Spike for 15/16: who’s replacement production level would’ve been so much higher than Dak and Aubrey.
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