Arizona was lauded for its consistency during its 16 consecutive wins to begin the 2025-26 season by college basketball metrics expert Evan Miyakawa. Miyakawa discussed the difference between the ceilings and floors for Arizona and Michigan on his podcast.
Michigan began the season with 14 consecutive wins before losing to Wisconsin on Saturday. The Wolverines are still first in the EvanMiya rankings. Michigan also remains first in the NCAA NetRatings. Arizona has seven wins against quadrant four opponents to two for Michigan.
The excessive games in quad four for Arizona are bringing their metrics down. Arizona is 5-0 against quad one and 4-0 against quad two in 2025-26. Michigan is 4-0 versus quad one opponents, 5-1 against quad two and 3-0 in games versus quad three teams.
Michigan is first nationally, outscoring opponents by 26.1 points per game. Arizona is sixth with a scoring margin of 23.1 PPG. The Wildcats have won 11 consecutive games by double digits. The 86-73 Arizona win at TCU on Saturday ended a streak of 10 consecutive wins by at least 19 points.
There's a stat that wildly separates Michigan and Arizona, arguably the top two teams in college basketball: game-to-game consistency.
— Evan Miyakawa (@EvanMiya) January 14, 2026
Full episode Michigan breakdown with @gwizzy12: https://t.co/rq9hZu7bNP pic.twitter.com/rzVoXFquLk
"Arizona is the number one team in all of division one in terms of consistency from game to game. Their performances are consistently always excellent. They rarely have games where they just like really, really blow the brakes off of a of a good team, but they also don't really have many letdown spots at all."CBB metrics expert Evan Miyakawa
Dominating the opposition
Arizona and Michigan are the top two teams nationally in kill shots, which Miyakawa defines as scoring 10 consecutive points or more. Michigan is first nationally, averaging 1.73 kill shots per game and tied for seventh in conceding 0.13 per contest.
Arizona is tied for eighth with 1.25 kill shots per game and tied for second, allowing 0.06. In its five marquee non-conference games, Arizona beat Florida by six points, UCLA and Connecticut by four, Auburn by 29 and Alabama by 21.
Michigan made a strong statement early this season by winning by a total of 110 points in victories over San Diego State, Auburn, and Gonzaga at the Players Era Tournament in Las Vegas during Thanksgiving Week.
Michigan has four other games with 18-point victories over Power Conference opponents this season. Penn State exposed Michigan during a 74-72 loss on January 6. That preceded the Michigan loss to Penn State.
Arizona has won its three Big 12 games by an average of 19 points per game. After Arizona State on Wednesday night, Arizona is at Central Florida on Saturday in what projects as its most difficult Big XII game at this point in the season. The Arizona schedule gets increasingly harder at BYU on January 26 and in February.