Schools that have multiple Final Four appearances but no title
Sports Stats ‘on Tapp’ is a sports statistics blog published multiple times weekly focusing on stats that go beyond the numbers.
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This year’s quartet of men’s Final Four teams have each made multiple trips to the Final Four (Kentucky 15th, Kansas 14th, Ohio State 11th and Louisville 9th) and have each won a national title (Kentucky 7, Kansas 3, Louisville 2 and Ohio State 1).
There have been, however, several schools that have made multiple trips to the Final Four yet have not won a championship. Following are the schools that have made three or more trips to the Final Four but are still waiting for their first title. Also noted is the number of Championship Games they have played in, and the last time they played in the Final Four. Those schools with two Final Four appearances are also noted.
School, Final Four appearances (Championship Games) Last Final Four appearance
Houston……….5 (2) 1984
Illinois………….5 (1) 2005
Kansas State…4 (1) 1964
LSU……………..4 (0) 2006
Oklahoma…….4 (2) 2002
Iowa…………….3 (1) 1980
Memphis………3 (2) 2008
Texas……………3 (0) 2003
Schools with two Final Four appearances but no title: Baylor, Bradley, Butler, Colorado, Dartmouth, DePaul, Georgia Tech, NYU, Oregon State, Providence, Purdue, St. John’s, Temple, USC, Virginia, West Virginia.
Is winning a conference tournament a precursor to the Final Four?
Sports Stats ‘on Tapp’ is a sports statistics blog published multiple times weekly focusing on stats that go beyond the numbers.
Rick Pitino's Louisville team is the only Final Four team this year to win its conference tournament. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Since 2000, there have been 52 different teams that have made it to the Final Four in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Over that timeframe, just under 54% of those Final Four teams (28 of the 52) played in their conference tournament championship game the week prior to the NCAA tournament. Twenty-three of the 28 won their conference tourney.
Of this year’s Final Four teams, Rick Pitino’s Louisville squad was the only one to win its conference tournament (they won the Big East Conference tournament); Kentucky and Ohio State both lost in their conference title game, while Kansas was defeated in the Big 12 conference semifinals.
In 2011, three of the Final Four teams won their conference tournament (Connecticut, Butler and Kentucky) and the fourth team, VCU, lost in the title game. In 2010, again three Final Four teams won their conference tournament (Duke, Butler and West Virginia) while Final Four participant Michigan State was defeated in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten tournament.
Following are how well the Final Four teams since 2000 (the last 13 tournaments) did in their conference tournaments prior to the NCAA tournament.
Final Four teams that won their conference tournament: 23
Final Four teams that lost in the conference tournament title game: 5
Final Four teams that lost in the conference tournament semifinals: 14
Final Four teams that lost in the conference tournament quarterfinals: 9
Final Four teams that did not play in a conference tournament: 1
Did you know? Of the 12 teams that won the NCAA championship this century (2000-2011), eight won their conference tournament. The other four, North Carolina in 2009, North Carolina in 2005, Syracuse in 2003 and Maryland in 2002, all lost in their conference semifinals.
Did you know? The last year when none of the Final Four teams won their conference tournament was 2009.
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