2 Comments

Sounds like we're in for a wild ride. Couple of things:

1) Hope your Tennessee writing sabbatical has gone well. I'm sure Wednesday night helped. Are we close to getting Show Me My Opponent back?

2) In one of your recent columns you posted a link to something you wrote back in 2020 about the fallacy of the media's obsession with “Every champion other than 2014 Connecticut in the KenPom era has ranked in the top 20 of offensive and defensive efficiency.”

You ended that column with some statistical observations I was wondering if you could update:

- In the KenPom era, 15 of 18 champions ranked in the top six nationally prior to the Tournament beginning.

- Seven of the last eight champions have had at least one side of the ball rank in the top seven nationally.

- 17 of the 18 champions in the KenPom era, other than 2014 Connecticut, had both a top 40 offensive and defensive efficiency.

- The #1 overall KenPom team has won the Tournament only three times in 18 years.

Expand full comment
author

1. Next Tuesday they return

2. So this has actually held up really well surprisingly...the new ratios would be

-17 of 20 top 6

-9 of last 10 one side of ball in top 7

-18 of 20 champs - exceptions now 2014 UConn and 2021 Baylor (#44 defense)

-now three times in 20 years, which is pretty nuts but generally on par with the roughly average expectation of the #1 team having a 20% or so shot to win it all

Expand full comment