They sure have. Kansas has the worst National Championship game record. A few points here and there our title numbers are very different. It isn’t for a lack of getting to the big game.
But at least the favor was repaid in 2008. Memphis certainly didn't go 12-30, but they missed the free throws that would've clinched the win. Up 4 with 1:15 left and CDR misses the front end of 1-and-1, up 2 with 16 ticks left he bricks 2 more free throws, 10 ticks left and Rose makes 1 of 2. The rest is history.
They were shitty as a team, but CDR and Rose were the best FT shooters they had, each at 71%.
www.cbssports.com
Great effort, really cool stuff! As an Illini fan, I am obviously biased, but I think we are easily a top 20 program of all time and were clearly a top 15 program of all time before our ~15-year dry spell. Even AFTER that, Illinois is in the top 15 in most metrics you would use except for that big elephant in the room - no National Championship.
However, I like to think of all-time rankings as an extension of our impression of programs stretched over every single individual season. For example, if an 8-seed wins the National Championship one year, we give them their due; they are the champs. However, if No. 1 Seed Kansas chokes in the Second Round and No. 2 Seed Michigan State loses in the Sweet Sixteen, our impression doesn't immediately shift to considering that 8-seed as a clear-cut better program than the aforementioned two. That is why I like some metric included that rewards consistency. This can be any of the following:
- AP Top 10/25 Finishes (which you have)
- Weeks in the AP Top 25
- 30-Win Seasons
- 25-Win Seasons
- (More) Points for All-Time Winning Percentage
- Reduction in Points for Losing Seasons
I think it is okay to "duplicate" some things. Just for fun, these would be my subjective rankings of the top ten, so I would obviously be biased toward a system that yielded similar results:
1. Kentucky
2. North Carolina
3. Kansas
4. Duke
5. UCLA
6. Louisville
7. Indiana
8. Villanova
9. Arizona
10. Michigan State
By the way, did you ever see CBS' similar system? I thought it was interesting:
The Greatest College Basketball Programs Ever: Ranking the top teams of all time
You know who the top schools are, but can you guess them in the right order? Come look at the top shelf of college hoops
Again, awesome work, man!
) is obviously relevant when comparing Indiana to Illinois ... but how relevant is that disparity when comparing Illinois to Cincinnati? It's incredibly hard to account for where to draw the line here. As has been alluded to, Maryland's basketball history is just an entirely different beast than Purdue's to judge because of the huge effect sharing a conference with North Carolina and Duke has on your ability to win your conference each year. However, when you compare something like weeks in the AP top 25, Maryland's 431 is significantly higher than Purdue's 375.
I think some consideration has to be given to the NIT, because of the restriction, that a conference could only have one team in the NCAA tourney, that prevailed until the 1970's. I'm particularly thinking of the year that the Pac (Pac 8, at that time) had UCLA win the NCAA, and USC win the NIT, finishing #1 and #5 in the nation, respectively.
In 1971 UCLA finished #1 and USC finished #5, but USC was not in the NIT. The Pac-8 allowed only their conference champion to participate in any postseason tournament up until 1973.
Hmm.....Syracuse = 5th Blueblood.Here's some more up-to-date information. All-Time Wins and All-Time Winning Percentage.
ALL-TIME WINS
BEST WINNING PERCENTAGE OF ALL-TIME
Wow LSU has produced three great players to UK's one.
