Indiana has fallen from the number one spot in the nation for the second time during this NCAA basketball season. They were the pre-season number one pick and help on to that spot for the first 9 weeks of the season.
After a heartbreaking loss to Minnesota on the road last week the Hoosiers fell from the number one spot again…..this time to Gonzaga which has only lost two games all year. Of course, comparing the schedules of the two schools will reveal that IU has had a much tougher bunch of teams to battle that Gonzaga.
Now that we have entered the long awaited month of March, the action has picked up and all focus is directed to just one thing….the NCAA National Playoffs beginning on March 19. Only 68 teams will qualify…..but once in, it’s every school for itself and when a number one seed looses to the lowest seed in the tourney, they still go home.
One loss and you are out. Keep on winning and you could wind up in the Final Four, which is to say…in the stratosphere of college basketball. Just making it into the Final Four is quite an honor and something that the players and fans will always remember.
Looking at statistics is one way of predicting which teams will actually make the cut and which will not. Here is one look at Ken Pom’s “Champ Check” list.
Teams which have won the national championship for the past 12 years have all fulfilled the following criteria.
- They went into the tourney as a number one, two or three seed.
- They are a member of one of the major power conferences.
- They either went to the Final Four last year or they have an All-American on the team.
- They are led by a coach with more than five trips to the tourney and at least one Elite Eight run.
- They are averaging over 73 points per game while allowing less than 73.
- They win by 7 or more points per game, on average.
- They have a strong schedule among the top 75 in the country.
The Indiana Hoosiers come out on top when all of these criteria are applied with Duke, Kansas, Michigan, Louisville and Syracuse nipping at their heels.
March Madness, as the NCAA National Tournament is known, is one of the most exciting events in sports today and basketball fans across the nation are getting ready for the upcoming action.
