Until we see how this season plays out, I would put the 2011/2012 big ten championship above this. If we make it to the sweet 16 or beyond (or even win the big ten tournament) I might feel differently. But a first or second round loss and a 4th/5th place conference finish doesn’t match a conference championship share in my eyes
Pretty much agree although we could move up or down depending on the rest of the year. (You could make the case that 2011-12 was better than 2016-17 if you value the regular-season title more than BTT, but then 16-17 had the Sweet 16 also, so I think it gets the nod.)
BTW we are in 4th place for sure; we’re 13-5 and Nebraska is 12-5. It’s just a question of seeding.
Keep in mind that we have the same conference record (13-5) as in 2011-12. The difference is due to things we can’t control (how our opponents’ seasons went). Also, B1G scheduling is much more imbalanced now and we had to play the toughest schedule of any contender this year.
Yeah I get all those variables and I’m ecstatic with where the team is at (way ahead of schedule in my eyes) but a banner is still a banner. Great season this year but the entire conference season from start to finish we were a step behind the true contenders in the big ten.
Depends on the criteria. Like Buckets says, '11-'12 was pretty special because the Big Ten was so loaded and a banner is a banner and we hadn’t had one for a while. Similarly, '08-'09 was the first time in a decade getting to the tourney, so I’d at least consider switching that with '10-'11 even though the latter was a better team. Good list, lots of fun years.
Obviously, we need to see how it plays out. For me, even one NCAA tournament win would be more important than a big ten 3 way tie for first, especially since the record was 13-5, the same record we had this year. The loss to Ohio in the first round of 2012 was horrible compared to the type of basketball we are currently playing. Two of the teams ahead of us, Michigan State and Purdue, are elite and we are trending in that direction. In 2011/2012 we were not elite.
Personally I enjoyed the 14 season more cuz it was more uniformly fun throughout. The failures in the B10 season really put a damper in parts of the 2013 season.
In terms of enjoyment of the season on the whole 11,12, 13, 14, and 18 are the seasons I have enjoyed the most.
I found our struggles through adversity and injury to be inspiring in 15–so I enjoyed that season quite a lot more than their final record might suggest.
2011-12 was not his best team, but it was definitely his best coaching job. He won the Big Ten with a 7 man rotation that included Matt Vogrich, Stu Douglass playing 30 minutes a game, and Zack Novak as starting 4. Go figure.
Seriously though, the NCAA Tournament is all about your draw and getting hot at the right time. The beating we took in the Big 10 Tournament in 2013 from Wisconsin had me feeling worse about that Michigan team than any other we’ve recently had heading into the tourney.
I don’t know how some of y’all are rating 2009 so low. The first year in a decade we got in the tourney, beating two top 5 non conference teams including probably the loudest, most impressive game in Crisler post-scandal, the beginning of the career of two of the all time fan favorites in Zack and Stu, and, when looking at that roster, none of it should have come close to happening.