Interesting observation by Loren Tate this morning. In 6 of the past 7 tourneys that we've been in we have averaged 20 fewer points per game during the tourney than we had throughout the regular season. He had no explanation.
That's pretty concerning, lol. With the exception of 2013 and maybe 2011, it seems we have looked markedly worse in the Tournament than we finished the season every year since 2005. We all look forward to the day this changes, but there are not many programs in the country with such a sizable gulf between our historic success in the regular season (being top 15 all-time in most categories) and our historic success in March (while still good probably closer to top 25 or top 30 all-time).
I was looking back through our Tournament setups since the 1999-2000 season, and here are a few interesting things.
- Since 2000, we have made the NCAA Tournament 14 times. We made it every year from 2000 to 2007, and then in 2009, 2011, 2013 and every year from 2021 to 2023. We were obviously going to make it in 2020, as well, before COVID hit. What a depressing gulf of sadness 2014 to 2019 was!
- In those 14 Tournaments, we have made it to at least the Second Round in every single year except for 2007 and 2009. We made it to at least the Sweet Sixteen four times (2001, 2002, 2004 and 2005), the Elite Eight twice (2001 and 2005) and the Final Four once (2005, obviously).
- We have been a #4 seed a lot and a #1 seed THREE times, as well. All in all, we have been a #4 five times, #1 three times, #5 two times, #9 two times, #7 one time and #12 one time.
- In those 14 NCAA Tournaments, we have only played our First Round game on the Thursday just THREE times before 2023 - 2009, 2006 and 2005.
- Lastly, our most common opponent is Kansas. We beat them in the 2001 Sweet Sixteen, lost to them in the 2002 Sweet Sixteen and lost to them in the 2011 Second Round. If we were to beat Arkansas, we would most likely play them for a fourth time in 14 Tournaments. The second most played opponent is a tie between Arizona (whom we lost to in the 2001 Elite Eight and then beat in the 2005 Elite Eight for some sweet, comeback-fueled revenge!) and Western Kentucky (whom we beat in the 2003 First Round and lost to in the 2009 First Round without Chester).
Lastly, since I'll always try to be an eternal optimist, I'll try to find a silver lining for this year. Hopefully having low expectations and a relatively easy trip to Des Moines might take some pressure off of this team? In 2021, the general stressful environment of a quarantine and the target of being a #1 seed proved a bit too much for us, especially after the emotional gauntlet of winning the BTT in OT to prove a point that we were the best in the league.
Last year, we had to travel pretty far (Pittsburgh) and you could tell our group was stressed to prove we could get past the Second Round. I'm not just basing that off of our incredibly tight performance and close call vs. Chattanooga, either; Underwood literally said as much right before the NCAAs and after our BTT loss to Indiana - this year's focus was all about March Madness. Well, we ran into a very underseeded #5 seed in Houston (literally ranked four spots ahead of us in the AP poll, lol), and it was not to be.
A guy can dream, but I am hoping this year will not carry the same tightness. We might lose to Arkansas, but I am hopeful that we have a pep in our step and just go out there and play. You could argue that this team has been under more pressure in every game since the Indiana loss than they are right now.