Monday, January 23, 2012

The blue bloods of college basketball

Consulting a variety of sources I was able to compile rankings among NCAA men's basketball teams in the following categories:

All-time wins
NCAA tournament appearances
NCAA tournament wins
NCAA Final Fours
NCAA titles

By averaging the rankings through the end of the 2011-2012 season, you get the following output:

1 - Kentucky - average ranking of 1.6
2 - UNC - 2.2
3 - UCLA - 3.6
4 - KU - 4.2
4 - Duke - 4.4
6 - Indiana - 7.0
7 - Louisville - 8.4
8 - Syracuse - 10.4
9 - UConn - 14.2
10 - Cincinnati - 15.2
11 - Michigan State - 16.8
12 - Arizona - 16.8
13 - Utah - 17
14 - Georgetown - 17.6
15 - Arkansas - 17.8
16 - Villanova - 18.6
17 - Ohio State - 19.2
18 - Oklahoma State - 19.8
19 - Marquette - 22.8
20 - NC State - 24.2


UK has a record of 149-96 against the rest of the top 10.
UK has a record of 227-139 against the rest of the top 20.


The teams UK has beaten up on, among the all-time top 20:
Kansas 21-6
Louisville 30-15
Syracuse 8-3
Cincinnati 27-10
Utah 9-2
Arkansas 25-8
Villanova 6-1

UK also has winning records against UCLA, Duke, Indiana, Michigan State, Oklahoma State, Ohio State and NC State.  UK is 7-7 against Marquette.

The only losing records for UK against the teams in the all-time top 20:
UNC 13-22
UConn 1-3
Arizona 2-3
Georgetown 0-2

Teams with top credentials in at least one area but lacking either longevity or tournament success:
Temple (6th in wins)
St. John's (7th in wins)
Notre Dame (9th in wins)
Penn (10th in wins)
Washington (14th in wins)
BYU (15th in wins)
Western Kentucky (16th in wins)
Purdue (17th in wins)
Florida (t-8th in titles)
Texas (t-11th in appearances)
Illinois (t-15th in appearances)

Overall, I think this system does a good job assessing each school's relative merits.  Most people (with any historical knowledge of the game) would subjectively name the same top 6 that were produced here.  Below the top 6, you see a mixture of teams with upward momentum (Syracuse, UConn, Mich. St., Ohio St.) and downward (Utah, Arkansas, NC State).  Most importantly, UK is #1.

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