SWC75
Bored Historian
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- Aug 26, 2011
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This is a follow-up to a post I recently did on the football board. I wanted to know how many weeks in history fans of each school could looked at the writer’s or coaches’ poll and see their team at the top of it, ranked #1. Here is the basketball version. (The writer’s poll in basketball began with the 1948-49 season. The coaches’ poll began with the 1950-51 season. There is a bias toward recent decades because the season has gotten longer and longer. The first polls covered 8 weeks. Now it’s 19. Preseason and post-tournament polls are included. The number of national championships actually won is in parenthesis. I’ve included the NCAA tournaments before the polls in that stat.
137 weeks UCLA (11 national championships)
135 Duke (4)
116 Kentucky (8)
111 North Carolina (5)
65 Kansas (3)
60 Indiana (5)
50 Cincinnati (2)
41 Ohio State (1)
38 Arizona (1)
32 Connecticut (4) and UNLV (1)
29 San Francisco (2)
26 Illinois (0)
22 Michigan (1) and Syracuse (1)
16 DePaul (0), Florida (2) and Stanford (0)
14 Massachusetts (0)
13 Arkansas (1) and North Carolina State (2)
12 Georgetown (1)
11 Houston (0) and Virginia (0)
9 Kansas State (0)
8 Michigan State (2), Oregon State (0), St John’s (0) and West Virginia (0)
6 Memphis (0), Seton Hall (0) and Temple (0)
5 Bradley (0), California (1), Holy Cross (1), Missouri (0), Notre Dame 5 (0), Oklahoma (0)
4 Indiana State (0), LaSalle (1), Loyola-Chicago (1), Marquette (1),
3 Louisville (3), Pittsburgh (0), Wake Forest (0)
2 Alabama (0), Duquesne (0), Gonzaga (0), Oklahoma State (2), St. Louis (0), Southern California (0), Texas (0)
1 CCNY (1), Georgia Tech (0), Iowa (0), Maryland (1), St. Joseph’s (0), South Carolina (0), Tennessee (0), Wichita State (0),Wisconsin (0)
Comments: I kid you not. The University of Louisville, winners of 3 national championships, have been atop the polls on only four occasions in their entire history. There was no post-tournament poll in any of the years that they won the national championship, (1980, 1986 and 2013). They were ranked #1 in the polls of March 9th and 16th of 2009 and January 14, 201. That’s it. I was also surprised how few weeks Michigan State was #1 and how many Cincinnati was #1, although I knew they had a great run in the late 50’s early 60’s. Duke may take over the lead in all-time #1 rankings this season from UCLA, who has been #1 for 40 some years. They need three weeks.
Syracuse had been #1 pre-season in 1987, from 11/27/89-1/2/90, 3/1/2010, 12/12/11-1/16/12 and 2/3-17/14. None of those teams even made the Final Four. Being ranked #1 is shiny but it’s pyrite, not gold.
(my sources were ESPN’s College Basketball Encyclopedia and this page of Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:College_men's_basketball_rankings_in_the_United_States )
137 weeks UCLA (11 national championships)
135 Duke (4)
116 Kentucky (8)
111 North Carolina (5)
65 Kansas (3)
60 Indiana (5)
50 Cincinnati (2)
41 Ohio State (1)
38 Arizona (1)
32 Connecticut (4) and UNLV (1)
29 San Francisco (2)
26 Illinois (0)
22 Michigan (1) and Syracuse (1)
16 DePaul (0), Florida (2) and Stanford (0)
14 Massachusetts (0)
13 Arkansas (1) and North Carolina State (2)
12 Georgetown (1)
11 Houston (0) and Virginia (0)
9 Kansas State (0)
8 Michigan State (2), Oregon State (0), St John’s (0) and West Virginia (0)
6 Memphis (0), Seton Hall (0) and Temple (0)
5 Bradley (0), California (1), Holy Cross (1), Missouri (0), Notre Dame 5 (0), Oklahoma (0)
4 Indiana State (0), LaSalle (1), Loyola-Chicago (1), Marquette (1),
3 Louisville (3), Pittsburgh (0), Wake Forest (0)
2 Alabama (0), Duquesne (0), Gonzaga (0), Oklahoma State (2), St. Louis (0), Southern California (0), Texas (0)
1 CCNY (1), Georgia Tech (0), Iowa (0), Maryland (1), St. Joseph’s (0), South Carolina (0), Tennessee (0), Wichita State (0),Wisconsin (0)
Comments: I kid you not. The University of Louisville, winners of 3 national championships, have been atop the polls on only four occasions in their entire history. There was no post-tournament poll in any of the years that they won the national championship, (1980, 1986 and 2013). They were ranked #1 in the polls of March 9th and 16th of 2009 and January 14, 201. That’s it. I was also surprised how few weeks Michigan State was #1 and how many Cincinnati was #1, although I knew they had a great run in the late 50’s early 60’s. Duke may take over the lead in all-time #1 rankings this season from UCLA, who has been #1 for 40 some years. They need three weeks.
Syracuse had been #1 pre-season in 1987, from 11/27/89-1/2/90, 3/1/2010, 12/12/11-1/16/12 and 2/3-17/14. None of those teams even made the Final Four. Being ranked #1 is shiny but it’s pyrite, not gold.
(my sources were ESPN’s College Basketball Encyclopedia and this page of Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:College_men's_basketball_rankings_in_the_United_States )
