Interesting NCAA Tournament facts

[JLEW1818]

For those of you who might need help filling out your Bracket, take these statistics into consideration.

BEFORE 2008,

For instance, as you scout darkhorses, you might wonder how many No. 4 seeds have ever won the national championship (one, Arizona in 1997), or how many times a No. 16 seed has beaten a No. 1 in a first-round game (zero).

But unless you have the NCAA record books at your disposal, how do you find such information? We'll make it easier for you, with the following nuggets if information about how teams have done based on their seeds. Unless otherwise noted, these facts come from after the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985. Here are some key numbers for NCAA Tournament seed history:

1 - number of times all four No. 1 seeds have reached the Final Four (2008-UCLA,North Carolina, Memphis, Kansas). Three No. 1s made it in 1999 (Connecticut, Duke, Michigan State) and 1997 (Kentucky, Minnesota, North Carolina).
(fixed by Collier,)

0 - number of times a No. 16 seed has beat a No. 1 in a first-round game.



1 -- Number of times a No. 1 seed has not reached the Final Four since 1985 (2006, which featured UCLA as No. 2, Florida as a No. 3, LSU at No. 4 and No. 11 George Mason)

1 - Number of No. 4 seeds to win the title (Arizona, 1997)

1 - Years in which two No. 8 seeds have both reached the Final Four (North Carolina and Wisconsin, 2000)

2 - Number of No. 5 seeds to reach the title game (Florida, 2000, Indiana, 2002)

2 - Number of No. 6 seeds to win the championship (Kansas, 1988, North Carolina State, 1983)

2 - Number of No. 11 seeds that have reached the Final Four (George Mason, 2006, LSU, 1986.)

3 - Number of No. 3 seeds to win it all since 1985 (Michigan, 1989, Syracuse, 2003, Florida, 2006)

4 - Number of No. 13 seeds to reach a regional semifinal (Bradley, 2006, Oklahoma, 1999, Richmond 1988, Valparaiso, 1998).

4 - Number of No. 15 seeds that have advanced to the second round (Richmond, 1991, Santa Clara, 1993, Coppin State, 1997, Hampton, 2001).

6 - The seed Michigan's "Fab Five" took into the Final Four in 1992 as freshmen. They returned as No. 1 seed a year later, but failed to win a title either time.

8 - Lowest seed ever to win the national championship (Villanova, 1985).

9 - Only one No. 9 seed has ever reached the Final Four (Pennsylvania, 1979).

12 - Missouri is the only No. 12 seed to have ever reached the regional finals (2002 against Oklahoma).

13 - Number of times since 1985 that a No. 1 seed has won the NCAA Tournament (Florida was a No. 1 in 2007).

92-0 - The all-time record of top seeds against No. 16 seeds in the first round.

88-4 - The record of No. 2s against No. 15 seeds in the first round.

77-15 - The record of No. 3 teams against No. 14s in the first round.

50-42 - The record of No. 9 teams in the No. 8 vs. No. 9 first-round games.

1,456-1,456 - All-time won-loss record of every team to have ever played in the NCAA Tournament.

[JLEW1818]

It's at the No. 5 vs. No. 12 games that things get interesting. The five seeds are just 63-29, so the lower seed wins 31.5 percent of these match-ups. It's even better in recent years - the No. 12 seed has won 11 times in the last seven years, or at a 39.3 percent clip. The upsets here aren't that surprising because the No. 12s are often a decent mid-major, while the five is often a solid but flawed team from a power conference.

Make sure you pick a 12 seed.

[Jacie]

Nice post.

On a related note, there is an article today about this year's mistakes made in seeding that says OUr #2 is too high, as are Portland State at #13 (RPI of 117 is lowest among all Division 1 schools) and Syracuse at #4 getting too much boost for beating UConn in the Big East Tourney.

[Collier11]

0 - number of times all four No. 1 seeds have reached the Final Four. Three No. 1s made it in 1999 (Connecticut, Duke, Michigan State) and 1997 (Kentucky, Minnesota, North Carolina).



come on now jlew, all four #1 seeds made the Final Four last year :rolleyes: :D

[badger]

jlew is trying to trick us all into creating crappy brackets so that his bracket wins ;)

but, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt - was last year the first year all four No. 1's advanced? Are jlew's stats outdated by a year?

[Collier11]

yea it looks like he missed the boat by a year

[JLEW1818]

yah these stats are from 2007 and before. Good catch, i didn't even think about last year.... So according to math its going to take another history of the tourney for all 4 number 1's to make it.

Thanks for the update, I'll fix it.

[8timechamps]

The 12 vs. 5 thing is always kinda crazy, but if you think about it, one (or all) of the 5 seeds is usually an at-large bid (which means they'd be at-large bid #20 overall). And, usually one of the 12 seeds is a small conference champion...so, the fact that there have been a lot of 12 over 5 seed upsets isn't really that far fetched.

[King Crimson]

people always pick too many upsets. we used to enter a "dummy" bracket that had all the higher seeds win in the bracket things some buddies and i used to do...as a control. the "dummy" finished in the money every year.

but, we also used to score 1 correct pick in the first two rounds as 2 points, and 4 the second weekend. and 4 for the final. and we picked round by round....not the media-overdetermined nonsense of trying to pick a 64 team tournament all at once.

with the pick all at once bracket and the way they are scored (16 points for picking the winner)...all you are doing is picking the winner because it's very hard to win without picking the winner. thing to do in those scoring brackets is pick your elite 8 and work backwards. i don't pick the bracket anymore; as a consequence, i enjoy the tournament a lot more. though, by the second week the advertising and Jim Nantz make me want to chew off my own kneecaps.

[King Crimson]

the other thing people do...is over-value teams from their own conference or area.

[badger]

people always pick too many upsets.

with very few exceptions, the ESPN "experts" were all picking the 1's and 2's in the Elite Eight and most of them chose the 1's for the Final Four. I couldn't switch the channel fast enough.

Seriously though, this might be the best year in recent history to pick a lot of upsets after the way the conference tourneys went. I hope with all my hope that this leads to OU having a great tourney.

[JLEW1818]

West Virgina and Florida State are going to do some damage... that's all i can tell yall tho......hehehe

[Rock Hard Corn Frog]

West Virgina and Florida State are going to do some damage... that's all i can tell yall tho......hehehe


Yeah. FSU is going to have the faculty forge their scores and when done West Virginia will burn their couch.

[8timechamps]

...by the second week the advertising and Jim Nantz make me want to chew off my own kneecaps.

I'm 38 years old, and I have had an ongoing joke with a childhood friend for over 25 years. He still lives in Oklahoma, but just about everytime I talk to him, one of us ends up saying:

Sponsored in-part by Penzoil

I don't know what the dude's name was that did all the post-game spots, but that one in particular was always said.

I haven't heard that spot, or his voice in a long time (I think he was pretty old when I was a kid).

It's sad, but that is one thing about the NCAA Tournament that I remember more than almost any other over the years.

[JLEW1818]

Remember, no team that has lost its first game in their conference tournament has won the national championship.

Pitt, Uconn, OU

[Jacie]

Some old bracket methods that probably don't work anymore:

Used to be you could count on Missouri folding in the first round, especially if they were the higher seed, but I think that was a couple of coaches (Norm) ago.

The same thing applied to Indiana (Bobby Knight) except it was the second round (but we don't have to worry about IU or BK this year . . .).

UCLA was always a good bet to win at least three games.

The top two seeds in each bracket were considered bullet-proof in the first round.

Make UNC one of the last eight (this year they should go to the Final Four).

[Frozen Sooner]

Nice post.

On a related note, there is an article today about this year's mistakes made in seeding that says OUr #2 is too high, as are Portland State at #13 (RPI of 117 is lowest among all Division 1 schools) and Syracuse at #4 getting too much boost for beating UConn in the Big East Tourney.

Since there's 300+ D-1 basketball programs, I have a hard time putting credence in an RPI of 117 being the lowest.

[missann]

Remember, no team that has lost its first game in their conference tournament has won the national championship.

Pitt, Uconn, OU

Hmmm....So I guess I'm looking at Louisville or Memphis.

[soonerfan28]

jlew, you said that UCLA had the #1 seed twice last year. You left out Kansas.

[JLEW1818]

thanks, i fixed it. Don't trust copy/paste from word. lol....