bill perigo took over the michigan coaching job after having served three seasons as western michigan basketball coach. despite previous success as a conference basketball champion coach at western and subsequent success as a michigan high school athletic association (mhsaa) champion basketball coach, his michigan teams endured several mediocre seasons. his best big ten records came in 1956–57 and 1958–59 when his teams compiled 8–6 conference records. the latter team was tied for second in the conference and was 15–7 overall (8–6, big ten). it also had perigo's only first-team all-big ten athlete in m. c. burton. team captain and two-time football consensus all-american ron kramer was third-team all-big ten in 1957 after being second-team all-big ten in both 1955 and 1956.