ACC Tournament Matchups

Tonight's game between Louisville and North Carolina State marks the 4th time that 2 teams from the ACC have played each other in the ACC tournament.  It is the earliest round that they have ever played.  The other 3 are:

• North Carolina defeated Virginia 78-65 in the 1981 National Semifinals
• North Carolina State defeated Virginia 63-63 in the 1983 Elite Eight
• Duke defeated Maryland 95-84 in the 2001 National Semifinals

Sunday Round of 32 Rematches

Omaha

• Wichita State defeated Kansas 66-65 in the 1981 Sweet Sixteen
• Wisconsin defeated Oregon 85-77 in the 2014 Round of 32

Charlotte

• Michigan State defeated Virginia 61-59 in the 2014 Sweet Sixteen

Columbus

• Maryland defeated West Virginia 102-77 in the 1984 Round of 32 
• Dayton defeated Oklahoma 89-85 in the 1984 Round of 32

Real "First Round" Tournament Rematches

The following games in the Round of 64 are re-matches from previous tournaments:

Midwest Regional

• Maryland defeated Valparaiso 82-60 in the 1999 Round of 64

West Regional

• Oregon defeated Oklahoma State 68-55 in the 2013 Round of 64

 

First Tournament

Three teams will be making their first tournament appearance.

• Buffalo
• Cal-Irvine
• North Florida

Ten coaches will be making their first tournament appearance.

• Bill Coen, Northeastern
• Matthew Driscoll, North Florida
• Jerod Hasse, UAB
• Jim Hayford, Eastern Washington
• Chris Holtmann, Butler
• Bobby Hurley, Buffalo
• David Richman, North Dakota State
• Larry Shyatt, Wyoming
• Andrew Toole, Robert Morris
• Russell Turner, Cal-Irvine

Six coaches that have been in the tournament before will be making their first tournament appearance with a new team.

• Mike Anderson, Arkansas (UAB - 2004-06; Missouri - 2009-11)
• Larry Brown, Southern Methodist (UCLA - 1980-81; Kansas - 1984-88)
• Ron Hunter, Georgia State (IUPUI - 2003)
• Johnny Jones, Louisiana State (North Texas - 2007, 2010)
• Larry Krystkowiak, Utah (Montana - 2005-06)
• Mark Turgeon, Maryland (Wichita State - 2006, Texas A&M - 2008-11)

RPI Facts - NCAA Tournament

Southern Mississippi has the highest RPI of any team that missed this year's tournament at #30.

California has the lowest RPI of any at-large team that made this year's tournament at #53.  The record is #74 held by New Mexico in 1999.

Duke is the 6th team to finish #1 in the RPI (since it began in 1994) and not receive a #1 seed.  The other #1 RPI teams to not get a #1 seed and their results are:

• 1995 North Carolina - #2 Seed - Lost in National Semifinals to Arkansas 
• 2000 Cincinnati - #2 Seed - Lost in Round of 32 to Tulsa
• 2005 Kansas - #3 Seed - Lost in Round of 64 to Bucknell
• 2008 Tennessee - #2 Seed - Lost in Sweet Sixteen to Louisville
• 2009 Duke - #2 Seed - Lost in Sweet Sixteen to Villanova

The top 2 teams in the RPI (Duke and New Mexico) did not receive a #1 seed.  It is the first time that neither of the top 2 teams in the RPI were a #1 seed.

This is the 6th time that Duke has finished #1 in the RPI.  Kansas has finished #1 5 times.  The only other teams to finish #1 multiple times are Kentucky and North Carolina with 2.

Duke has finished in the Top 10 of the RPI 6 consecutive years and 15 of the last 17.  Miami and Indiana finish in the Top 10 of the RPI for the first time since it began in 1994.

The RPI's of the #1 Seeds are:

• #3 Louisville
• #5 Kansas
• #6 Gonzaga
• #7 Indiana

The sum of their RPI's is 21.  That is the second highest RPI sum of the #1 seeds since 1994.  The highest was 27 in 2000 when the #1 Seeds and their RPI's were:

• #2 Duke
• #3 Arizona
• #9 Stanford
• #13 Michigan State

Only 2 teams that finished #1 in the RPI have won the National Championship in the 19 years of the RPI.  They were Kentucky in 1996 and Duke in 2001.  Both of them were #1 seeds also.

The most common RPI to win the Championship is #3 which has 5 Championships.  No other RPI has more than 2.  Louisville is #3 in the RPI this year.  Those 5 are:

• Kentucky - 1998
• Connecticut - 1999
• Maryland - 2002
• North Carolina - 2009
• Duke - 2010

Out of those 5, only Kentucky was not a #1 seed.

Records vs. Top 5 Winningest NCAA Tournament Teams

Before Kansas came back to defeat Texas today, someone on Twitter commented that Texas could possibly defeat both North Carolina and Texas and not make the tournament.  Although they still will play Kansas again this year, the chances of that happening are probably slim.

However, it made me wonder how teams have done against the top all-time tournament teams in a single year and all-time.

There are five schools that have won more than 90 tournament games all-time.

• Kentucky 113
• North Carolina 108
• UCLA 100
• Duke 96
• Kansas 93

14 schools have at least 5 wins all-time vs. the "Top 5" schools led by Indiana

• Indiana 9
• Marquette, UCLA 8
• Duke, Kentucky 7
• Kansas, Ohio State 6
• Arizona, Florida, Louisville, Michigan State, North Carolina, Syracuse, Villanova 5

The schools that has the most victories vs. the "Top 5" without a defeat is Texas El-Paso (formerly Texas Western) with 3.

• Defeated Kansas 81-80 in 1966 Elite Eight
• Defeated Kentucky 72-65 in 1966 National Championship
• Defeated Kansas 66-60 in 1992 Round of 32

Arizona is the only team to ever defeat 3 of the "Top 5" in a single tournament in 1997.

• Defeated Kansas 85-82 in Sweet Sixteen
• Defeated North Carolina 66-58 in National Semifinals
• Defeated Kentucky 84-79 (OT) in National Championship

11 other teams have defeated 2 of the "Top 5" twice in a single tournament. Teams in Bold won National Championship

• Texas El-Paso - 1966 (Kansas, Kentucky)
• Houston - 1967 (Kansas, North Carolina)
• Western Kentucky - 1971 (Kentucky, Kansas)
• Florida State - 1972 (Kentucky, North Carolina)
• Louisville - 1986 (North Carolina, Duke)
• Michigan - 1993 (UCLA, Kentucky)
• Kentucky - 1998 (UCLA, Duke)
• Florida - 2000 (Duke, North Carolina)
• Maryland - 2002 (Kentucky, Kansas)
• Michigan State - 2005 (Duke, Kentucky)
• Villanova - 2009 (UCLA, Duke)

Five of the above teams ended up losing to one of the "Top 5" also.  They were Houston, 1967; Florida State, 1971; Michigan, 1993; Michigan State, 2005 and Villanova, 2009.

The combination of schools that have never been beaten in a single tournament among the "Top 5" are:

• UCLA and North Carolina
• UCLA and Kansas
• Duke and Kansas

Here are the times where a school defeated one team, but lost when they had the opportunity to defeat the other:

• UCLA and North Carolina - 1967 Dayton, 1969 Purdue, 1972 Florida State, 1993 Michigan, 1995 Arkansas, 2009 Villanova
• UCLA and Kansas - 1952 Santa Clara, 1967 Houston, 2008 Memphis
• Duke and Kansas - 1990 UCLA, 1993 California, 1994 Purdue

 27 schools have at least 7 losses all-time vs. the "Top 5" led by Kansas

• Kansas 12
• Louisville 11
• Michigan, Michigan State, Villanova  10
• Utah 9
• Illinois, Indiana 8
• Iowa State, Marquette, Notre Dame, Purdue  7
• Arkansas, Duke, Kentucky, New Mexico St, Ohio State, San Francisco, Syracuse, Temple  6
• Arizona St, Connecticut, Houston, Miami (OH), North Carolina, Princeton, Xavier 5

Louisville in 1972 was the only team to ever lose to two "Top 5" teams in a single tournament when they lost to UCLA in the National Semifinals and North Carolina in the National Third Place game.  Of course with today's format, no team can lose more than one game in a single tournament.

The most wins and losses all-time vs. each of the "Top 5" are:

• Kentucky - Marquette - 6 wins; Utah - 6 losses
• North Carolina - Kansas - 3 wins; Michigan State - 5 losses
• UCLA - Florida - 3 wins; San Francisco and Kansas - 5 losses
• Duke - Kentucky - 3 wins; Connecticut, Kansas, Michigan and St. Joseph's - 3 losses
• Kansas - UCLA - 5 wins; North Carolina - 3 losses