Coming into the NCAA Tournament, the discussion had already began as to whether or not the 2025-26 Wolverines were the greatest team in Michigan history. With only one previous team winning a national championship, the main competitors were the 1989 team, the iterations of the Fab Five, and the Trey Burke-led 2012-13 team.
Following Michigan’s romp through the field this year, there hasn’t been much of any discourse surrounding if this is the best Michigan team of all time (spoiler alert: it is).
But this gives us a new question to ponder — where does this Michigan team rank when it comes to being the best team of all time?
Let’s start with using some fun stats to praise this team. Michigan set a program record in wins (37), regular-season wins (29), and Big Ten record (19-1). The Wolverines also went undefeated on the road for the first time in program history.
Zooming out to compare this team to other programs, the stats continue to be ridiculous in nature. Per KenPom, the 2025-26 Wolverines were the second-best team of all-time behind only the 1998-99 Duke Blue Devils. That team was led by Elton Brand, Corey Maggette, Trajan Langdon and Shane Battier. Interestingly, the Blue Devils lost in the National Championship, meaning this Michigan team is the highest-ranked team ever on KenPom to win it all. Michigan did this while also having the No. 1 strength of schedule in the country. This was no UCF football or Miami (Ohio) basketball fluke. This was a historically dominant team.
In the NCAA Tournament, Dusty May and company flexed their muscles even more. The Wolverines set a tournament record by scoring 90 or more points in their first five games. Sadly, the rock fight vs UConn prevented them from setting the scoring record in a tournament, but it was impressive nonetheless.
Now that we’ve had time to sit back and reflect on the season, it’s clear to see this was a historically dominant team. There just were no weaknesses to attack, as Michigan could beat any team so many ways. Over the course of the season, eight different Wolverines led the team in scoring in different games, including four distinct high-scorers among the six NCAA Tournament games.
The competition for Michigan to be considered the greatest team of all time is expectedly stiff. The teams that come to mind are 1976 Indiana, 1990 UNLV, 1999 Duke, 2015 Kentucky, 2018 Villanova and 2024 UConn. All were excellent in their own right. Without a definitive way to argue what makes a team the greatest team of all time, we’ll leave that for you to decide in the comments below.
Do these Wolverines have a legitimate claim to being the greatest team of all time? If not, where would you rank them? Would they be in the top three? Top-five? Top-10? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
It’s great to be a Michigan Wolverine.
