After people started pointing out how historic Giannis’s resume is at 26, I wanted to see if Magic’s age that age was comparable but I didn’t know it by heart. In addition to that 42 15 and 7 game 6 that everyone knows about, he might have Giannis beat with playoff success. Any other players that could boast resumes like this?
You know, since they're playing without the fans.
The success of the Pac-12 this season got me wondering how successful a single conference has ever been in a single NCAA Tournament. I looked up the history of the tournament, since the expansion to 64 teams in 1985 (it was less common for many teams from the same conference to get an invite prior to this era) and found out that 1 conference, the ACC in 2016, has had 6 teams reach the Sweet 16 and 4 conferences have had 5 teams go that far. Here are the number of teams that advanced to each round, including winning the National Title that year.
| Year | Conference | S16 Teams | E8 Teams | F4 Teams | Won National Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | ACC | 6 | 4 | 2 | No |
| 2019 | ACC | 5 | 2 | 1 | Yes |
| 2018 | Big 12 | 5 | 3 | 1 | No |
| 2015 | ACC | 5 | 3 | 1 | Yes |
| 2009 | Big East | 5 | 4 | 2 | No |
The bold indicates that a conference had the most teams ever reach that round of the tournament. Of course, several other conferences had 2 teams reach the Final Four, such as 2004 ACC (Duke and Georgia Tech), 2013 Big East (Syracuse and Louisville), and 2014 SEC (Kentucky and Florida). It is somewhat common for two teams from the same conference to appear in the Final Four. Still the 2009 Big East was a tough conference, as was 2016 ACC.
EDIT: 4 teams from the ACC in the Elite 8, not 3. Kudos to u/eatapenny for checking my math.
Hey everyone. I’m Scott Gleeson, college basketball writer for USA TODAY. I’m based in Chicago and grew up watching Michael Jordan stick his tongue out. I’m in my eighth March Madness writing about the bubble, the bracket-busters, Cinderellas and Final Four mayhem. Let’s talk some college basketball! Follow me on Twitter: @ScottMGleeson
Recent bylines:
A historically soft field and new metric put this year's NCAA tournament bubble teams on edge
North Carolina's second win over Duke should catapult Tar Heels to a No. 1 seed
Three factors that caused Kansas' historic Big 12 title streak to finally snap
Proof: https://i.redd.it/kp67u9ex9cm21.jpg
Edit: That’s all I have time to answer today, folks. Thank you for all the questions (and commentary). Keep following my March Madness coverage at usatoday.com.
- They play the style of basketball they would play in the NBA.
- They are well-coached by pros and we see how they translate to the NBA style of play. We know how good they are playing against NBA players. Raptors 905 had a lot of former NBA players, many 1st rounders and we saw how good they really are. NCAA basketball plays nothing like this.
- I see massive improvement from all of these guys and I see what they are for real.
- It's a lot easier and fun to watch on average from a scouting perspective and there is a lot less guessing into this. Anyone can get this one part right.
- They play a lot of games, it's like the real NBA but they don't play as many as the NBA so they get a lot more development time. Honestly, we need to end the one and done system and require everyone out of HS prospect to go to the G-League for development. Man, that would be great.
- I love it and by the number of likes, we all love it!
revenge tour:
Football: def Arizona 24-16, def Utah 26-17, def ASU 27-17, def Washington State 21-19
Basketball: def Oregon 81-49
next games vs PAC 12: basketball @Utah and football @USC both November 27th
