A recent Twitter exchange got me thinking about the number of wins posted during the Spartan careers of current players relative to previous MSU classes. To the archives!
| Year | NonConf | BigTen | BTT | NCAA/NIT | Total | Departing Four-Year Players |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 31 | 46 | 3 | 8 | 88 | A. Smith, Klein, Kelley (88) |
| 2000 | 35 | 50 | 6 | 13 | 104 | Cleaves, Peterson, Granger |
| 2001 | 39 | 54 | 6 | 16 | 115 | Bell, Hutson, Thomas (99) |
| 2002 | 41 | 51 | 6 | 14 | 112 | None |
| 2003 | 38 | 46 | 4 | 13 | 101 | Ballinger, Anoganye |
| 2004 | 33 | 45 | 2 | 7 | 87 | Andreas |
| 2005 | 31 | 45 | 2 | 7 | 85 | Hill, Torbert, Anderson, Bograkos |
| 2006 | 34 | 43 | 4 | 7 | 88 | Ager, Davis |
| 2007 | 39 | 41 | 4 | 5 | 89 | None |
| 2008 | 46 | 41 | 4 | 7 | 98 | Neitzel, Naymick (90) |
| 2009 | 47 | 43 | 5 | 8 | 103 | Walton, Suton, Gray, Ibok |
| 2010 | 45 | 49 | 3 | 12 | 109 | Morgan, Dahlman |
| 2011 | 32 | 41 | 2 | 11 | 86 | Lucas, Allen, Summers |
| 2012 | 20 | 29 | 1 | 9 | 59 | Green, Roe, Lucious |
The table shows the cumulative wins by category over the four seasons ending in the year shown. The column at the far right shows four-year players departing at the end of that season. Players with a number in parentheses after their names didn't play their four seasons consecutively (due to mid-career redshirts); the numbers in parentheses reflects the total wins during those players' active playing careers. The figures are not adjusted for wins players didn't participate in due to injury/etc. Partial career results are shown for the two classes that will depart after the next two seasons.
Bullets:
- A bit of a raw deal for Chris Hill, Kelvin Torbert, and Alan Anderson--the least winningest class of the Izzo era. (Lucas/Allen/Summers already have them beat, actually.) Those three guys were part of Izzo's first rebuild and suffered from other players leaving early during their tenure.
- The only two players to win more games in their career than Raymar Morgan were Charlie Bell and Andre Hutson (since there were no departing four-year players in 2002). Not bad for a guy who came in right at the start of Izzo's second major rebuild. You can discount his total wins for the games he missed due to injury, but that's at least somewhat offset by the fact he played a bigger role as a freshman that all but a handful of other Izzo-era Spartan have.
- Four Big Ten championships and three Final Fours push Bell and Hutson to the top of the pile. The combined 65 wins in the 1999 and 2000 seasons are still pretty remarkable. Winning the conference tournament helps a lot in racking up big win numbers.
- Kalin Lucas, Chris Allen, and Durrell Summers need 29 wins next season to tie Bell/Hutson. That's doable, but not a given. 10 nonconference wins, 14 Big Ten wins, 2 Big Ten Tournament wins, and a Final Four appearance would get them to 30.
- If Draymond Green, Delvon Roe, and Korie Lucious could match the win total from the first 2 years of their careers in the final 2 years, they'd beat Bell/Hutson by 3 wins. 2012 shapes up to be a mini-rebuilding season, though, so that may be a tough feat to pull off.
- The last couple classes do benefit a bit from the inflation in the number of games played each season. MSU has played 30-31 regular season games in each of the last 5 years. Prior to that, the number fluctuated between 26 and 30.
P.S. For posterity's sake, here's the raw season-by-season win data:
| Year | NonConf | BigTen | BTT | NCAA/NIT | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 6 | 9 | -- | 1 | 16 |
| 1997 | 7 | 9 | -- | 1 | 17 |
| 1998 | 7 | 13 | 0 | 2 | 22 |
| 1999 | 11 | 15 | 3 | 4 | 33 |
| 2000 | 10 | 13 | 3 | 6 | 32 |
| 2001 | 11 | 13 | 0 | 4 | 28 |
| 2002 | 9 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 19 |
| 2003 | 8 | 10 | 1 | 3 | 22 |
| 2004 | 5 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 18 |
| 2005 | 9 | 13 | 0 | 4 | 26 |
| 2006 | 12 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 22 |
| 2007 | 13 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 23 |
| 2008 | 12 | 12 | 1 | 2 | 27 |
| 2009 | 10 | 15 | 1 | 5 | 31 |
| 2010 | 10 | 14 | 0 | 4 | 28 |
| Total | 140 | 174 | 13 | 37 | 364 |