Fan Satisfaction Index: BBall Regular Season Results

Submitted by OneFootIn on

Solid. Surprising. Ascending. MAARvelous. Antrorse.

These are just a few of the words fans used to describe the basketball team’s regular season. Sitting at 24-7 after throttling Maryland last Saturday, Michigan fans were in a good mood, felt very satisfied about the regular season, and displayed a great deal of optimism about Michigan’s chances in the NCAA tournament.

It should come as little surprise to learn that a decisive road win against a team that Ken Pom and others expected to beat Michigan induced a serious case of satisfaction. Satisfaction with the game averaged 94.3 and as Figure 1 shows, responses clustered in an unusually tight range (except for one person who I think might have accidentally typed ‘10’ when he or she was trying to type ‘100’).

Figure 1. Maryland Game Satisfaction

(X axis is game satisfaction on a 0-100 scale; Y axis is # of respondents)

Season satisfaction was also high after the Maryland game, averaging 85.7 with a standard deviation of just 6.8, again showing a remarkable level of uniformity of opinion. To some degree the level surely reflected (as was the case during the football season) the flush of positive emotion that comes with a victory. At the same time, fans have every reason to be satisfied with the season viewed in broader perspective.

Sure, the season could have been really special had they not blown a couple of golden opportunities (Purdue twice, OSU, etc.) and lost a couple stinkers (Nebraska, Northwestern). On the flip side, however, how many fans had confidence at midseason that Michigan would wind up 24-7 and look this dangerous as it heads into the postseason? Given how long it took Michigan to figure out who was going to play what roles and for various pieces to round into form, their record seems like a major achievement, not to mention a great sign of things to come.

Figure 2. Regular Season Satisfaction

(X axis is season satisfaction on a 0-100 scale; Y axis is # of respondents)

This survey offered fans the opportunity to share the single word that they felt best described the season. In true MGoBlog fashion we received several creative responses. The word cloud below offers a visual summary of the responses with the most popular responses appearing as the biggest words in the cloud.

Figure 3. Describe the Season in One Word

The final question on the survey asked fans to predict how far Michigan would make it in the NCAA tournament. Riding a five game winning streak, including a smack down of the Buckeyes and two road victories against dangerous opponents, the fans are feeling bullish. A majority will clearly be disappointed if Michigan isn't playing on the second weekend. 

Figure 4. How Far Will Michigan Go?

  Percent n
1st Round 0.4 1
2nd Round 10.4 24
Sweet 16 54.6 126
Elite 8 25.5 59
Final Four 3.5 8
Championship Game 1.3 3
They'll Win It All 4.3 10

 

Comments

stephenrjking

March 1st, 2018 at 6:17 PM ^

Well, the fanbase sure is optimistic: A whopping one person predicts a first-round exit, which almost surely has a much higher likelihood than the percentile of predictions it receives.

For my part I picked Sweet Sixteen. But who knows?

Steves_Wolverines

March 2nd, 2018 at 7:33 PM ^

I feel like a word cloud which uses multiple colors should have the same color represent words of similar counts. No way should one yellow word be 4x larger than another yellow word. It would make for a much quicker visual comparison. Just my 2 cents. 

Oh, and Go Blue! This team is rolling, and it would be sweet to beat MSU and have a decent run in the tourney,