Toughest Road to a National Championship.

[andyw715]

Add up the seed #'s you beat to get there.

Cuse 2003 is 3rd on the list

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/03/201...-tar-heels-easy-bracket-history-highest-seeds


This run for UNC is supposedly an "easy one", but they haven't played the "2016 NCAA Tournament Syracuse" team.

GO ORANGE!

 

[CorduroyG]

a little misleading. if you beat an 8 seed to win the championship you did not have the toughest road lol

 

[TinyManInside]

Amazing how many teams have won championships without ever playing a 1 seed.

To me the most impressive on that list is the 1997 Arizona team that beat 3 #1 seeds. That's the best you could do.

 

[HoustonCuse]

If we win it this year, it would be tied for #9 on this list.

 

[Roll Cuse]

a little misleading. if you beat an 8 seed to win the championship you did not have the toughest road lol

haha yeah. plus it obviously has everything to do with the fact that Uconn was a lower seed themselves having to play higher seeds in the first place. so the 8 isnt a huge deaal when you consider most other champs have a 14 15 or 16 early.

To me its mostly about the last few games and the final 4 specifically. And seed dosent always tell the whole story. UK in 2012 was clearly a fantastic team and a deserving champion, but in reality all season long the 2 other top teams that made compelling final 4/title matchups with them were Cuse and UNC. Then Fab Melo happened, and UNC lost Kendall Marshall, and they ended up getting a 4 seed in lville in the final 4 and a KU team that had little chance despite their 2 seed. This is not me saying they werent incredible or that they were undeserving, only that their #9 ranking on this lost is a bit deceiving.

 

[CorduroyG]

haha yeah. plus it obviously has everything to do with the fact that Uconn was a lower seed themselves having to play higher seeds in the first place. so the 8 isnt a huge deaal when you consider most other champs have a 14 15 or 16 early.

To me its mostly about the last few games and the final 4 specifically. And seed dosent always tell the whole story. UK in 2012 was clearly a fantastic team and a deserving champion, but in reality all season long the 2 other top teams that made compelling final 4/title matchups with them were Cuse and UNC. Then Fab Melo happened, and UNC lost Kendall Marshall, and they ended up getting a 4 seed in lville in the final 4 and a KU team that had little chance despite their 2 seed. This is not me saying they werent incredible or that they were undeserving, only that their #9 ranking on this lost is a bit deceiving.

duke got a huge break in 2010. cuse, kansas, and kentucky were by far the 3 best teams all year. and yet somehow duke wins the title without having to beat any 1 of those teams. amazing. and i think they got the easiest 2 seed in their bracket.

 

[Forza Azzurri]

Add up the seed #'s you beat to get there.

Cuse 2003 is 3rd on the list

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/03/201...-tar-heels-easy-bracket-history-highest-seeds


This run for UNC is supposedly an "easy one", but they haven't played the "2016 NCAA Tournament Syracuse" team.

GO ORANGE!

Villanova's total points in 1985 was 20...

 

[Cuse_1999]

duke got a huge break in 2010. cuse, kansas, and kentucky were by far the 3 best teams all year. and yet somehow duke wins the title without having to beat any 1 of those teams. amazing. and i think they got the easiest 2 seed in their bracket.

Not to mention the 4 seed in their region was Purdue whose best player Robbie Hummel was hurt. No way Purdue should have been seeded that high without Hummel

 

[kirbivore]

Amazing how many teams have won championships without ever playing a 1 seed.

To me the most impressive on that list is the 1997 Arizona team that beat 3 #1 seeds. That's the best you could do.

Before that year they also beat a #1 seed Missouri in the 1994 elite 8, so Arizona has pulled off the beat four consecutive #1 seeds feat that SU has recently done.

 

[CIL]

Looks like NASA deleted his post...I was about to write that NASA is screwed with that math!!!!

 

[cuse62]

This year we will beat 2 1 seeds and a 2 seed

 

[andyw715]

This year we will beat 2 1 seeds and a 2 seed

Same path as 2003

 

[Roll Cuse]

duke got a huge break in 2010. cuse, kansas, and kentucky were by far the 3 best teams all year. and yet somehow duke wins the title without having to beat any 1 of those teams. amazing. and i think they got the easiest 2 seed in their bracket.

Absolutely. This is a better example than the uk won I gave. Butler northern Iowa and wv(nearly Cornell) really cleared dukes path. Probably the weakest 1 seed to ever win the title. But hey that's the tourney.

 

[HtownOrange]

Same path as 2003

I posted shortly after the selections were released that the last time the Big 12 was this strong Syracuse won the title.

 

[Devland]

a little misleading. if you beat an 8 seed to win the championship you did not have the toughest road lol

Even though Kentucky was an 8 seed that year, with Cal's team of one and done's coming on at the end of the season , many considered them the team to beat. They were by far the most talented team in the field. If Wisconsin was able to pull out the nail biter against Kentucky in the semi's and lose to UConn in the finals then UConn's opponents total goes to 22. Eleven seeds lower than the 1993 North Carolina team that had the second toughest road.