Tigeer Wrote:I don't know the statsitics but I would guess you would be surprised if you listed all the national champions in BB over the last 50 years. UCLA has won what 11-12 alone, UK 6-7, Duke and Indiana maybe 4 or so and the UofL, UNC, NC State and others 2 or so. Not many have done it. Besides years ago the NIT was a bigger deal than it is today - no jokes please.
Of course the UofL has a step up on Memphis, never said they didn't but the gap isn't as big as you try to make it.
On another note - do you know where Eastern High School is? I lived near there as a young kid - age 1-6.
I understand that the NIT was the bigger tournament. UofL won the NIT in 1956, and it was much more important then it is now, but already less important at that point then it was in the 1940's. Determining a certain year where the "NCAA passed the NIT in importance" would just be a matter of opinion I think but top teams used to have to choose which one to enter, and it really was a tough choice.
As for who's won the NCAA, this is who's won the title since 1960. This ignores repeat winners, the conference number is how many individual schools have won it over the last 45 years from each league (going by current conference make-up).
BE- 7
ACC- 4
Big 10- 4
SEC- 2
PAC 10- 2
Big 12- 1
Big West- 1
CUSA- 1
Horizon- 1
While we had many repeats, that is 23 different schools for the last 45 years. That's not to say each of those schools is necessarily ahead of Memphis based just on one year, but there are many schools that have won it all.
In my opinion, there's two sides. One side is head to head, and there it is very close. The 2 have always been very competitive and had fierce battles. However, on the 2nd aspect, national results, I don't think the two are that close to be honest. We're talking 2 NCAA titles, an NIT title, & 8 Final 4's v. 2 Final 4's. And that 2nd side is what they work with when people make up what they feel are top programs overall.
Obviously all these lists are opinion, but the list that is used most often is the one put out in the last year or two by Street and Smith. It is fairly well respected and this list is even used in "prop-up" pages of many school's official athletic sites where they brag about their Street and Smith all-time ranking when they mention all-time wins, accomplishments, etc.
The list's Top 15:
1)Kentucky
2)UCLA
3)UNC
4)Kansas
5)Duke
6)Indiana
7)Louisville
8)Arkansas
9)UCONN
10)Cincinnati
11)Utah
12)Ohio State
13)Oklahoma State
14)Arizona
15)Syracuse
The biggest part of their rankings I could find on Google was a link to those 15 plus the #16-25 teams and Memphis wasn't in there. You'd skyrocket even with just 1 title, not that even 1 is easy of course. At least you have your best shot at going deep in a long time this year. I think a good argument could be made to replace a couple of teams in the 20-25 range with the Tigers but I don't think you could go much above that.