Chartsandgraphs: The Final Four
The Final Four! Chartsandgraphs! This thing happening, the Rams in the Final Four, is not something to be taken lightly. Who knows when/if this will happen again. SOAK IT UP.
Last week we looked at some Sweet 16 related chartsandgraphs. This week, I bring you, the FINAL FOUR CHARTSANDGRAPHS.
Note: just like last week this data stretches back to 1985 — when the tournament expanded to 64 teams. So when I say “ever” I really mean “ever since 1985.”
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Number of appearances by state
North Carolina has, by far, sent more teams (namely Duke and North Carolina) to the Final Four than any other state. NC has sent 20 while Michigan — in second place — has sent nine. Only 31 states (including Washington DC) have sent teams to the Final Four.
Above is that same map again with North Carolina thrown out.
While the data doesn’t span a “lifetime,” this really is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Midmajor darling Gonzaga (from Spokane, Washington) has made the NCAA tournament every year since 1999 but has never reached the Final Four. Virginia has only sent two teams: George Mason (2006) and VCU (2011). Both of these teams were from the CAA and both were 11 seeds.
Appearance by conference
Here is another graph to either depress you about VCU’s future Final Four chances or excite you about the rarity of this One Shining Moment.
Note the bottom of that chart: midmajor conferences combined have sent less teams than the ACC. SOAK IT UP RAM FANS.
Midmajors with multiple Final Four appearances3 UNLV (1987, 1990, 1991), Butler (2010, 2011), Memphis (1985, 2008) |
Majors with one Final Four appearances10 Marquette (2003), Minnesota (1997), Mississippi State (1996), Providence (1987), Saint John’s (1985), Seton Hall (1989), Stanford (1998), Texas (2003), West Virginia (2010), Wisconsin (2000) |
Average seed by year
Just like the Sweet 16, I’m not sure that the data bares out this so called parity. Sure, the average seed (the median seed is maybe more interesting/useful, but I did average last week SO THIS IS WHAT YOU GET) has increased dramatically over the last three years, but I don’t really see an overall trend. Let’s come back to this in 25 years.
Year with largest average seed2011 (6.5) Connecticut (3), Kentucky (4), Butler (8), VCU (11) |
Year with largest median seed2000 (6.5) Michigan State (1), Florida (5), North Carolina (8), Wisconsin (8) |
Year with smallest average seedIncidentally, this is the only year that all 1 seeds made it through to the final four. 2008 (1) UCLA (1), Kansas (1), North Carolina (1), Memphis (1) |
GO RAMS GO |
Appearances by seed
Note that seeds 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16 have never made a Final Four appearance. Which is weird because three 11 seed teams have made the cut: LSU (1986), George Mason (2006), and VCU (2011).
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THE RAM-PAGE
For this tournament I did some number crunching of my own. The following is average winning margin for all seeds, the average of all the seeds played by each team, and points scored per game. Remember, VCU had to play one more game than the rest.
UConn 9.75 win mgn pts – 6.75 seeds – 72.24ppg;
UK 4.75 win mgn pts – 5.25 seeds – 67ppg;
Butler 3.25 win mgn pts – 4 seeds – 66.5ppg;
VCU 12 win mgn pts (best) – 6.2 seeds – 74ppg (best).
UConn is the highest ranking seed with the second highest win margin, behing VCU. Butler played the highest ranking seeds overall, but remember that VCU beat the #10, that beat #2 (OK I am grasping for stats here). Butler barely won most of its games. Except for Purdue, VCU dominated on points scored.
I don’t beleive this a fluke as some sports commentators have claimed. VCU has figured out how to play against some of the best teams in the US. Were it not for February, they would have come in with a better record. Butler is probably going to be thier toughest game, and I don’t think that Butler is coming into this game with a pre-conceived notion of winning like Kansas probably did. So if VCU can find a way to beat Butler, then they could go all the way.
Either way, they have already made history. If they win the whole thing, this tournament will go down in history as one of the greatest sports stories of all time (yes, I stole that from the sports commenators, but that IS true).