Two Top Ten Wins...in December

[GooooMarquette]

Two top 10 wins in less than two weeks is awfully impressive. And it's still December.

It caused me to wonder if we have ever had two top 10 wins before the new year. I looked back over the past 25 years or so, and we only had two top 10 wins in December total (Bucky about ten years ago, and Duke with the Amigos). In fact, we have only even played two top 10 teams this early a couple of times.

Quite the accomplishment....

[GoldenWarrior11]

Tremendous note, and it just highlights the accomplishment of not only successfully playing this season (when many remain paused, or have been affected by other programs pausing), but playing this year at a very high level.  It is still very early, but the performance from these players and the coaching staff has been a great surprise and has been a joy to watch.  This team plays tough defense, rebounds, shares the ball and, most importantly, does not quit. 

I think the improvement and progression of John, Cain and Elliot (the 2017 recruiting class) has been the most satisfying.  Having four-year contributors that can stay and develop is the strong backbone to consistent top-25 programs.  We obviously won't get that from the 2018 class (Joey), but with Dex, Sy, our current freshmen and next year's class, it gives a nice blueprint for the staff and program to follow for, hopefully, may seasons to come.  The addition of DJ really helped balanced things out.  Dawson and Lewis might very well end up leaving early for the NBA, but that will hopefully be because of their development and growth while at MU. 

The program is, at present, in a great place.  I will try and enjoy it in the days and weeks ahead. 

[TallTitan34]

Two top 10 wins in less than two weeks is awfully impressive. And it's still December.

It caused me to wonder if we have ever had two top 10 wins before the new year. I looked back over the past 25 years or so, and we only had two top 10 wins in December total (Bucky about ten years ago, and Duke with the Amigos). In fact, we have only even played two top 10 teams this early a couple of times.

Quite the accomplishment....

Cheap plug. 

This can easily be checked on the schedule tab of my spreadsheet linked below.  Filter it using the arrow under "Opponent Rank" to only show games versus 1 through 10 and filter "Result" to only show wins.

https://www.muoverload.com/

[Heisenberg]

While not exactly what you asked about, MU under Wojo did have two top 10 wins in a three day period.

This was probably the best week of Wojo's head coaching career.

* MU beats #7 Creighton 102-94 - January 21, 2017
* MU beats #1 Villanova, 74-72 - January 24, 2017

[bilsu]

For comparison McGuire's top 10 wins. Overall 14-17 in thirteen years. Regular season 7-9 and  NCAA tournament 7-8.
1-30-65 St. John's 7th
12-22-65 Wichita St. 8th
1-4-69 Detroit #7th
3-13-69 Kentucky #7th
1-12-71 Notre Dame #9th
3-20-71 Kentucky #8th
12-11-71 Michigan #9th
1-22-74 Cal State-Long Beach #10
3-14-74 Vanderbilt #6
3-23-74 Kansas #6
2-28-76 Notre Dame #6
3-18-76 Western Michigan #10
3-19-77 Wake Forest #9
3-28-77 North Carolina #5

[TheGoldenBreakdown]

Cheap plug. 

This can easily be checked on the schedule tab of my spreadsheet linked below.  Filter it using the arrow under "Opponent Rank" to only show games versus 1 through 10 and filter "Result" to only show wins.

https://www.muoverload.com/

This is awesome

[MU82]

Tremendous note, and it just highlights the accomplishment of not only successfully playing this season (when many remain paused, or have been affected by other programs pausing), but playing this year at a very high level.  It is still very early, but the performance from these players and the coaching staff has been a great surprise and has been a joy to watch.  This team plays tough defense, rebounds, shares the ball and, most importantly, does not quit. 

I think the improvement and progression of John, Cain and Elliot (the 2017 recruiting class) has been the most satisfying.  Having four-year contributors that can stay and develop is the strong backbone to consistent top-25 programs.  We obviously won't get that from the 2018 class (Joey), but with Dex, Sy, our current freshmen and next year's class, it gives a nice blueprint for the staff and program to follow for, hopefully, may seasons to come.  The addition of DJ really helped balanced things out.  Dawson and Lewis might very well end up leaving early for the NBA, but that will hopefully be because of their development and growth while at MU. 

The program is, at present, in a great place.  I will try and enjoy it in the days and weeks ahead.

Love this post, GW11. It's where I'm at, too.

Very selfishly want this season to go on. I'm enjoying looking forward to a game all day, and then really enjoying watching the way these kids play. I mean, I'm already bummed that Sunday's game at X might not happen.

Stuff like this is a little oasis in the Sea of Shyte that has been 2020.

[TallTitan34]

This is awesome

Thanks!  Would have been even more awesome had I separated out the month to make that a filterable item.

[f/k/a humanlung]

No fan of Wojo but no denying this has been a great week.

Have to give credit where credit is due.

[PGsHeroes32]

Got two key games to win in the mean time.


But looks like next week we will have the chance at a 3rd Top 10 win in December(Unless Nova quickly adds a game this weekend and loses it).