NCAA championships by opponents’ total seeds

[HuskyNan]

I think this UConn fan was responding to a Villanova fan‘s dopey assertion. UConn twitter is all over stuff like that

 

[HuskyNan]

UConn Twitter

 

[Chin Diesel]

If you are a 1-seed and tourney goes chalk you would beat a 16, 8, 4, 2, 1, 1 for a total of a 32. That should be easiest path since you would play the "worst" or lowest seed each round.

An 8-seed would go 9, 1, 4, 2, 1, 1 for a total of 18.

 

[elmcityboy]

if anyone is curious where the 2023 team stacks up (they aren't included on this graphic) we had a seed total of 39, which would be tied for 14th with '92 duke and '88 kansas.

 

[uconngb]

If you are a 1-seed and tourney goes chalk you would beat a 16, 8, 4, 2, 1, 1 for a total of a 32. That should be easiest path since you would play the "worst" or lowest seed each round.

An 8-seed would go 9, 1, 4, 2, 1, 1 for a total of 18.

Wouldn't that be the hardest path since you are playing the highest seed each round?

 

[mbt0512]

Wouldn't that be the hardest path since you are playing the highest seed each round?

Pretty sure that by “worst” Chin meant “most difficult”

 

[Tenspro2002]

If you are a 1-seed and tourney goes chalk you would beat a 16, 8, 4, 2, 1, 1 for a total of a 32. That should be easiest path since you would play the "worst" or lowest seed each round.

An 8-seed would go 9, 1, 4, 2, 1, 1 for a total of 18.

I guess the argument is 1 seeds "deserve" an easy path, and higher seeds like us don't.

The argument gets a lot weaker when you consider that we beat everyone by 13 points or more and none of the games were competitive inside the last TV timeout.

"UConn was lucky they didn't have to face Kansas [who lost to a team we beat by 23], UCLA [who lost to a team we beat by 28], Houston [who lost to a team we beat by 13], or Bama [who lost to a team we beat by 17]."

 

[Palatine]

It's not how. It's how many.

 

[gtcam]

You beat the team that you are facing due to the schedule
Plain and simple
Win them all and then who cares?
This argument is for whiners - Dookies, Nova fans, etc

 

[Chin Diesel]

I guess the argument is 1 seeds "deserve" an easy path, and higher seeds like us don't.

The argument gets a lot weaker when you consider that we beat everyone by 13 points or more and none of the games were competitive inside the last TV timeout.

"UConn was lucky they didn't have to face Kansas [who lost to a team we beat by 23], UCLA [who lost to a team we beat by 28], Houston [who lost to a team we beat by 13], or Bama [who lost to a team we beat by 17]."

I agree, and I think most "experts" agreed by the end of the tourney that UConn was far and away the best team in the country. The narrative wasn't "how did a 4-seed win it all?", it was "how did a team this good lose 8 games and get a 4-seed?".

Here's another example. A 13-seed. Their path would be 4, 5, 1, 2, 1, 1. Total of 14.

UConn going chalk this year as a 4-seed would have been - 13, 5, 1, 2, 1, 1. Total of 23.

 

[Get a Job]

Seed total is a very sketchy metric for judging the difficulty of a team's road to the championship. If we're being honest, we have to admit that this year's path was super easy. Sure, the team was a cot damn monster truck and probably could have rolled over 6 1-seeds, but the fact remains the bracket broke quite easy for us this year. Where we could have faced 1, 2, 1, 1 we faced 8, 3, 5, 5.

 

[HuskyNan]

You beat the team that you are facing due to the schedule
Plain and simple
Win them all and then who cares?
This argument is for whiners - Dookies, Nova fans, etc

Kanas fans There’s a kind of Twitter war with Kansas fans beating their chests about their 4 championships, including the one from 1920-something. It’s gotten so bad the Creighton and Villanova fans, even one Providence fan, are defending UConn.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

It's fair to say some of the tourney runs have opened up for us, to argue otherwise is disingenuous.

That said, the only people that seem to care are Kentucky, Kansas and Syracuse fans, with to some degree actually makes it more enjoyable knowing how much it tweaks them.

 

[Uconn77Duke74]

i'm bothered that they named 1992 Duke as "Uconn" in that chart. Did we win 6 and i missed one?

 

[uconnfan68]

Kanas fans There’s a kind of Twitter war with Kansas fans beating their chests about their 4 championships, including the one from 1920-something. It’s gotten so bad the Creighton and Villanova fans, even one Providence fan, are defending UConn.

5 > 4... always.

 

[Rocktheworld]

Kanas fans There’s a kind of Twitter war with Kansas fans beating their chests about their 4 championships, including the one from 1920-something. It’s gotten so bad the Creighton and Villanova fans, even one Providence fan, are defending UConn.

Lmao just pathetic

But I mean do they have a literal single other thing to be proud of in Kansas?

 

[Tenspro2002]

Kanas fans There’s a kind of Twitter war with Kansas fans beating their chests about their 4 championships, including the one from 1920-something. It’s gotten so bad the Creighton and Villanova fans, even one Providence fan, are defending UConn.

"Kansas is relevant because of their heyday during the Harding Administration" seems like a bit of a contradiction.

 

[willie99]

We didn't just beat anybody. We destroyed them, we mauled them, not one game was competitive down the stretch

The outcomes were never in doubt. Every coach we faced saw this, only some idiot tries to spin it to make himself feel better about his inferior program. I can only smile and look away

We are UConn. We have the most men's National Championships in the new millennia. Our women are even better.

We are spoiled and arrogant

We are the college basketball capital of the world

And we're better than you, all of you, whoever you are

This is the word of the Willie

 

[my2cents]

I guess the argument is 1 seeds "deserve" an easy path, and higher seeds like us don't.

The argument gets a lot weaker when you consider that we beat everyone by 13 points or more and none of the games were competitive inside the last TV timeout.

"UConn was lucky they didn't have to face Kansas [who lost to a team we beat by 23], UCLA [who lost to a team we beat by 28], Houston [who lost to a team we beat by 13], or Bama [who lost to a team we beat by 17]."

Thats exactly the point. You can only play the games against teams that win. If the higher seeds lose, arguing that they would be a more difficult team to play, is ludicrous.

 

[REB1094]

Upsets happen, injuries happen, and the "better" team doesn't always win. That's the Madness part of March Madness. Alabama, Houston, Purdue, Kansas, Arizona, UCLA, Texas, Marquette didn't beat who was in front of them. UConn, SDSU, FAU, and Miami did. Does that mean those were the best 4 teams last year? Probably not. But it's win-or-go-home every game, and those four won when it mattered while the others couldn't get it done.

There is a valid hypothetical question: "if UConn had to play Kansas, UCLA, Houston, Alabama, could they have won it all?". I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. Their advanced metrics and OOC dominance indicate they could, and they already blew out Bama early in the season. But it's all hypothetical.

There is an equally valid hypothetical question: "If Kansas couldn't beat Arkansas and UConn blew them out, if UCLA couldn't beat Gonzaga and UConn blew them out, if Houston couldn't beat Miami and UConn blew them out, if Alabama couldn't beat SDSU and UConn blew them out, could any of those teams beat UConn?". I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. All hypothetical

But what I do know is that UConn ran every single opponent off the court en route to 6 blowout wins and a National Championship. That's all that I really care about lol

 

[Husky68]

Seed total is a very sketchy metric for judging the difficulty of a team's road to the championship. If we're being honest, we have to admit that this year's path was super easy. Sure, the team was a cot damn monster truck and probably could have rolled over 6 1-seeds, but the fact remains the bracket broke quite easy for us this year. Where we could have faced 1, 2, 1, 1 we faced 8, 3, 5, 5.

Not perfect but hardly sketchy, unless the committee seeding is also sketchy. Did think the 2014 UConn team had a tough road, this shows actually did (and that's with Kentucky being under seeded due to not coming together well until late).

 

[TMB4405]

Tournament titles obtained since 1985 are much more difficult to win. That’s when the field expanded to 64. In addition the talent level has been more spread out in last 25 years; mid major veteran teams became a threat; basically it’s a lot harder to win any given game in the tournament. That’s why what we have needs to be put up against any other “blue blood “ credential and in fact vault us to top.

 

[Get a Job]

Thats exactly the point. You can only play the games against teams that win. If the higher seeds lose, arguing that they would be a more difficult team to play, is ludicrous.

It's not remotely ludicrous. There are many instances where the winner in one round is less equipped to beat the next opponent than the team they just beat would have been. Maybe the winner just had a great/lucky night. Maybe the other team just had a bad/unlucky night. Injuries, sickness, matchups, coaches' game plans, I could go on.

If you are saying that the fact that Team A just beat Team B is sufficient evidence to say that Team A is the more difficult opponent for Team C, then THAT is ludicrous.

 

[superjohn]

It's fair to say some of the tourney runs have opened up for us, to argue otherwise is disingenuous.

That said, the only people that seem to care are Kentucky, Kansas and Syracuse fans, with to some degree actually makes it more enjoyable knowing how much it tweaks them.

Some opened up for us and some didn't where we had to play the best an hour from their campus. Every team that's in the tournament a bunch has things break for them and things go against them. Some of the best teams we've had ended up with a lot of things going against them.

 

[Chin Diesel]

There is a valid hypothetical question: "if UConn had to play Kansas, UCLA, Houston, Alabama, could they have won it all?". I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. Their advanced metrics and OOC dominance indicate they could, and they already blew out Bama early in the season. But it's all hypothetical.

Using post-NCAA tourney metrics, meaning UConn's six wins are included and each of those teams' tourney wins and losses were included, I'd like to see a simulation of those teams and see which team would have won the most often. I think UConn comes out pretty good in that grouping. I'll go one step forward. Run a simulation of the top 16 teams- seeds 1-4 in each bracket, and see how it comes out.