Tuesday Top Ten: Championship Game Factual Minutiae

Yes, I realize it's Monday, not Tuesday, but the NCAA championship game is tonight, and to deprive you of the statistical knowledge below would be almost as bad as repeatedly chucking basketballs at your players' heads and not getting fired.

After an Elite Eight riddled with blowouts, both Final Four semifinal games were great.  Louisville stole a victory from Wichita State to return to the championship game for the first time since winning the title in 1986.  Meanwhile, Michigan held off Syracuse, clinching its first championship game berth since the Wolverines lost to North Carolina in 1993 in the infamous Chris Webber timeout game.

The championship game tips off at 9:23 Eastern tonight on CBS.  Tomorrow, we will be stricken with the cold, hard reality that we're stuck without college football or basketball for five months.

Here are ten stats related to tonight's championship game.

10.  If Louisville wins, Rick Pitino will become the first coach to lead two different schools to national titles.

9.  This is Michigan's 6th appearance in the championship game, and they only have one title to show for it, winning in 1989, but losing in 1965, 1976, 1992, and 1993.  If the Wolverines lose tonight, their winning percentage in national championship games will be .167, which will be the worst winning percentage among the nine teams that have been to at least 4 national title games (including vacated appearances):

1.  UCLA:  11-2 (.846)

2.  Indiana:  5-1 (.833)
3.  Kentucky:  8-3 (.727)
4.  North Carolina:  5-4 (.556)
5.  Duke:  4-6 (.400)
6.  Kansas:  3-6 (.333)
7.  Georgetown:  1-3 (.250)
8 (tie).  Michigan:  1-4 (.200) (not including tonight's game)
8 (tie).  Ohio State:  1-4 (.200)

8.  The 3 combined national titles between Louisville and Michigan (which will become 4 tonight) is relatively low.  If you look at every year since the tournament began and count all of the national titles (whether it was won that year, prior, subsequent, or later vacated), this will be only the 30th time (out of 74) that the combined national titles of the teams playing for the national title is 4 of fewer. 

4:
2000:  Michigan State (2), Florida (2)
2003:  Syracuse (1), Kansas (3)
2010:  Duke (4)

3:

1952:  Kansas (3)
1955:  San Francisco (2), LaSalle (1)
1961:  Cincinnati (2), Ohio State (1)
1962:  Cincinnati (2), Ohio State (1)
1961:  Loyola (IL) (1), Cincinnati (2)
1974:  NC State (2), Marquette (1)
1988:  Kansas (3)
2004:  Connecticut (3)
2007:  Florida (2), Ohio State (1)
2008:  Kansas (3)
2011:  Connecticut (3)

2:

1939:  Oregon (1), Ohio State (1)
1943:  Wyoming (1), Georgetown (1)
1945:  Oklahoma A&M (2)
1956:  San Francisco (2)
1960:  Ohio State (1), California (1)
1979:  Michigan State (2)
1983:  NC State (2)
1985:  Villanova (1), Georgetown (1)

1:

1941:  Wisconsin (1)

1944:  Utah (1)

1947:  Holy Cross (1)

1950:  CCNY (1)

1954:  LaSalle (1)

1959:  California (1)

1984:  Georgetown (1)

1989:  Michigan (1)

7.    Michigan becomes the 5th different Big Ten school to make it to the championship game since 2000.  No other conference has had more schools reach the championship game during that span.

6.  If Louisville wins the title, Indiana is all but guaranteed to win the title next year.  Both times Louisville won a national title (1980 and 1986), IU won the title the year after.

5.  Louisville's last title was in 1986, and Michigan's only title was in 1989.  Thus, it Louisville wins, it will have had a 27-year span between titles, and if Michigan wins, it will have had a 24-year span between titles.  Only six schools have had spans of more than 20 years between titles (with Kansas doing it twice).  Of course, if Oregon ever wins another championship, God help us all.

36 years:  Kansas (1952-1988)

25 years:  North Carolina (1957-1982)
23 years:  Indiana (1953-1976)
21 years:  Michigan State (1979-2000)
20 years:  Kansas (1988-2008); Kentucky (1958-1978); UCLA (1975-1995)

4.  Michigan is only the third 4-seed to make it to the title game since seeding began in 1979.  Syracuse lost in 1996, and Arizona won in 1997.

3.  Louisville is the 32nd 1-seed to advance to the title game since seeding began in 1979.  #1 seeds are 19-12 in championship games, and Kentucky in 1997 (coached by Rick Pitino) was the last 1-seed to lose in the championship game when facing a team other than another 1-seed (and they lost to a 4-seed).  Here is a breakdown of the 1-seeds in the championship game.

1979:  Indiana State (L)

1982:  North Carolina (W), Georgetown (L)
1983:  Houston (L)
1984:  Georgetown (W)
1985:  Georgetown (L)
1986:  Duke (L)
1987:  Indiana (W)
1988:  Oklahoma (L)
1990:  UNLV (W)
1992:  Duke (W)
1993:  North Carolina (W), Michigan (L)
1994:  Arkansas (W)
1995:  UCLA (W)
1996:  Kentucky (W)
1997:  Kentucky (L)
1999:  Connecticut (W), Duke (L)
2000:  Michigan State (W)
2001:  Duke (W)
2002:  Maryland (W)
2005:  North Carolina (W), Illinois (L)
2007:  Florida (W), Ohio State (L)
2008:  Kansas (W), Memphis (L)
2009:  North Carolina (W)
2010:  Duke (W)
2012:  Kentucky (W)

2.  If Michigan wins, it will be the Big Ten's first title since Michigan State won in 2000.  The 13-year span would be the 11th longest span between titles that a conference has had.  Here are the spans of more than ten years.

1.  36 years:  Big 7/Big 8/Big 12 (1952-1988)

2.  20 years:  SEC (1958-1978); Pac-12/Pac-10/Pac-8/Pacific Coast/AAWU (1975-1995); Big 7/Big 8/Big 12 (1988-2008)
5.  17 years:  Pac-12/Pac-10/Pac-8/Pacific Coast/AAWU (1942-1959); ACC (1957-1974)
7.  16 years:  SEC (1978-1994); Big Ten (1960-1976)
9.  15 years:  Missouri Valley (1946-1961)
10.  14 years:  Big East (1985-1999)
11.  12 years:  Big Ten (1941-1953)
12.  11 years:  Big Ten (1989-2000)

 

1.  If Michigan wins, I will win my office pool.  So, go Wolverines.  As a result of the preceding sentence, somewhere, my 16-year-old self is vomiting, and not because of Icehouse for once.