I have a few questions about the history of the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament. I tried researching these on the NCAA’s site and some other places, without luck.
[list=1]
[li]What team has played in the tournament the most times without winning the championship?[/li][li]What team has played in the tournament the most times without reaching the championship game?[/li][li]What team has played in the tournament the most times without reaching the Final Four?[/li][/list=1]
My quick research suggests that the answers are…
Tie: St. John’s and Syracuse. Both have reached 27 NCAA tournaments, and neither has ever won one.
St. John’s has never made it to the finals (Syracuse did and lost to Indiana)
Brigham Young has been to 19 tournaments, but has never made the Final Four (St. John’s has only made it once, back when they had Chris Mullin).
By my count, St. Johns will be making its 27th appearance this year.
However, St. Johns has been in 2 Final Fours. The Red (whatevers) lost in the 1952 championship game to Kansas.
St. Johns has won several NITs.
Coming into this year’s tournament, St. Johns has 27 NCAA tournament losses and Syracuse has 28, but I believe there are some consolation games tossed in there.
BYU must have some consolation game losses as well as the Cougars have 21 losses. The Cougars have been in the Elite Eight several times.
And if you really care, North Carolina A&T has made 9 appearances in the NCAA tournament and has never won a game. That’s the most in that department.
Via googling, I find that the lowest seeded team to win the tournament is the 1985 Villanova which was seeded 8. But I can’t find the answer to these questions:
What is the lowest seeded team to reach the final four?
What is the lowest seeded team to reach the sweet sixteen?
I’m only interested in the era since they expanded it to 64 teams (before that, I don’t think they called it the sweet sixteen).
dtilque, according to this page, the lowest seed ever to reach the Final Four was 11th-seeded Louisiana State in 1986. And according to this page, there have been three 14th-seeds to reach the Sweet Sixteen: Cleveland State in 1986, Tennessee-Chattanooga in 1997, and SW Missouri State in 1999.
And wouldn’t you know it, while I was looking up dtilque’s questions I found this page that answers two of my original questions: Syracuse has been in 27 tournaments without winning it all, and St. John’s is next with 26. Syracuse’s absence means that St. John’s will tie that dubious record if they don’t win it all this year. (Notre Dame is tied with Temple for third place, and should take exclusive possession of third this year. What is it with the Big East?) And BYU and Missouri are tied for most appearances without a Final Four.
(How come my research skills get better after I’ve already posted an OP that I could have answered with a little more digging? I’m feeling like quite a :wally right now.)
And with a little cross referencing between the pages I cited in my last post, I have found that Notre Dame and Temple are tied for the most appearances without reaching the title game. I have therefore answered all of my original questions, and now feel like even more of a putz than usual for having wasted your time with my OP.
Thanks for the answer MD.
That first page also had a list of all those bottom bracket teams (seeded 9th or lower) that won their first two games and put themselves in the sweet sixteen. The only problem is that it disagrees with the other page on SW Missouri State’s seeding in 1999. The first says 12 and the other 14.
Southwest Missouri State was a #12 seed when it made it to the Sweet Sixteen.
That year, #5 seed Wisconsin lost to #12 SMS 43-32 in the first round. The Bears then beat Tennessee in the second round.
That game against Wisconsin was pretty hard to watch. The Badgers made 12 field goals the entire game.