Sunday, March 23, 2014

Cool stat

Here's a weird-but-fun stat for people who like weird-but-fun stats: in the past four years before this season, 14 teams seeded 7 or better in the NCAA tournament had been among the 50 slowest-paced teams in the country and also had one of the 150 easiest non-conference schedules (stats from kenpom.com). Among those 14 teams, an amazing 12 of them lost early to a team seeded 3 or more spots below them (e.g., 7 losing to a 10 is 3 spots below):

2010 Notre Dame, 6-seed lost to 11-seed in round of 64
2010 Marquette, 6-seed lost to 11-seed in round of 64
2010 Pittsburgh, 3-seed lost to 6-seed in round of 32
2011 Texas A&M, 7-seed lost to 10-seed in round of 64
2011 Cincinnati, 6-seed lost to 3-seed in round of 32**
2011 Wisconsin, 4-seed lost to 8-seed in round of 16
2011 Pittsburgh, 1-seed lost to 8-seed in round of 32
2012 Notre Dame, 7-seed lost to 10-seed in round of 64
2012 Michigan, 4-seed lost to 13-seed in round of 64
2012 Wisconsin, 4-seed lost to 1-seed in round of 16**
2013 Notre Dame, 7-seed lost to 10-seed in round of 64
2013 Kansas State, 4-seed lost to 13-seed in round of 64
2013 Wisconsin, 5-seed lost to 12-seed in round of 64
2013 Georgetown, 2-seed lost to 15-seed in round of 64

** doesn't meet pattern

So, this season we were looking to see what teams met these criteria and the answer was Cincinnati (5-seed lost to 12-seed in round of 64) and Syracuse (3-seed lost to 11-seed in round of 32). That raises the count to 14 early losers out of 16 teams meeting the criteria.

Does it mean anything? Who knows. But next year when you're looking to fill out your Elite Eight or Final Four, you might want to check it out.

Don't say we never did anything for you.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/baylor-shuts-down-mcdermott-creighton-022217990--ncaab.html