Little Dance, Big Dance

[SWC75]

Jim Boeheim wondered if it might be true, as many have said, that a conference tourney champion usually doesn’t win the NCAA championship. We’ve won the BET five times but none of those teams even made it to the Sweet 16, (one didn’t even make it to the tournament). Our sole national champions lost in the semi-finals, just as we had done when Jim made that statement. Naturally, I decided to look it up. Here are the NCAA Tournament champions and how they faired in any conference tournament:

1939 Oregon: no conference tournament
1940 Indiana: no conference tournament
1941 Wisconsin: no conference tournament
1942 Stanford: The Pacific Coast Conference was split into two division and the division winners played a best of three championship, which Stanford won, 2-1 over Oregon State.
1943 Wyoming: no conference tournament
1944 Utah: no conference tournament
1945 Oklahoma A&M (State): no conference tournament
1946 Oklahoma A&M (State): no conference tournament
1947 Holy Cross: no conference tournament
1948 Kentucky: won SEC tournament
1949 Kentucky: won SEC tournament
1950 CCNY: no conference tournament
1951 Kentucky: lost in finals of SEC tournament
1952 Kansas: no conference tournament
1953 Indiana: no conference tournament
1954 LaSalle: no conference tournament
1955 San Francisco: no conference tournament
1956 San Francisco: no conference tournament
1957 North Carolina: won ACC tournament
1958 Kentucky: no conference tournament (It had been suspended in the wake of the point shaving scandals: it wasn’t started up again until 1979.)
1959 California: no conference tournament
1960 Ohio State: no conference tournament
1961 Cincinnati: no conference tournament
1962 Cincinnati: no conference tournament
1963 Loyola (Chicago): no conference tournament
1964 UCLA: no conference tournament
1965 UCLA: no conference tournament
1966 Texas Western (UTEP): no conference tournament
1967 UCLA: no conference tournament
1968 UCLA: no conference tournament
1969 UCLA: no conference tournament
1970 UCLA: no conference tournament
1971 UCLA: no conference tournament
1972 UCLA: no conference tournament
1973 UCLA: no conference tournament
1974 North Carolina State: won the ACC Tournament
1975 UCLA: no conference tournament
1976 Indiana: no conference tournament
1977 Marquette: no conference tournament
1978 Kentucky: no conference tournament
1979 Michigan State: no conference tournament
1980 Louisville: won the Metro Tournament
1981 Indiana: no conference tournament
1982 North Carolina: won the ACC Tournament
1983 North Carolina State: won the ACC Tournament
1984 Georgetown: won the Big East Tournament
1985 Villanova: lost in BET semi-finals
1986 Louisville: won the Metro Tournament
1987 Indiana: no conference tournament
1988 Kansas: lost to Kansas State in Big 8 semi-finals
1989 Michigan: no conference tournament
1990 UNLV: won Big West Tournament
1991 Duke: lost in ACC final
1992 Duke: won ACC Tournament
1993 North Carolina: lost in ACC final
1994 Arkansas: lost in SEC semis
1995 UCLA: no conference tournament
1996 Kentucky: lost in SEC finals
1997 Arizona: no conference tournament
1998 Kentucky: won SEC Tournament
1999 Connecticut: won BET tournament
2000 Michigan State: won Big Ten Tournament
2001 Duke: won ACC Tournament
2002 Maryland: lost in ACC semis
2003 Syracuse: lost in Big East semis
2004 Connecticut: won Big East Tournament
2005 North Carolina: lost in ACC semis
2006 Florida: won SEC Tournament
2007 Florida: won SEC Tournament
2008 Kansas: won Big 12 Tournament
2009 North Carolina: lost in ACC semis
2010 Duke: won ACC Tournament
2011 Connecticut: won Big East Tournament

Summary: If you include Stanford’s conference playoff win in 1942, 9which was 3 games), National champions have participated in 33 conference tournaments and won 22 of them- exactly two thirds. So losing the conference tournament doesn’t give you any advantages in winning the national title. The best teams tend to do both- because they are the best teams. Conference tournaments are neither an impediment to winning the national championship nor a stepping stone to it. They are simply another tournament- something else to win.