March Madness 2025

[LD84]

Originally Posted by Ragnar

Didn't the women's side have all four #1 seeds make it every year for quite some time? I think that streak broke sometime 15-20 years ago. Or am I thinking of the finals?

It is more common on the women's side due to the disparity between #1 and say the #20 ranked teams.

Also, due to women players having to stay at least three years (domestic players have to be 22 in the year of the WNBA draft) they stay longer
So schools that get very strong recruiting classes like Connecticut, South Carolina, Tennessee, LSU, Duke, Stanford etc
Their players stay for longer and get better at college basketball.

Men's college basketball does seem to have a bit more variance due to the 3 point shot, transfer portal and one and dones.

[pilight]

Originally Posted by Ragnar

Didn't the women's side have all four #1 seeds make it every year for quite some time? I think that streak broke sometime 15-20 years ago. Or am I thinking of the finals?

It's only happened four times in the women's tournament: 1989, 2012, 2015, and 2018.

[Ragnar]

Originally Posted by pilight

It's only happened four times in the women's tournament: 1989, 2012, 2015, and 2018.

Ok. So It must be the finals.

[pilight]

Originally Posted by Ragnar

Ok. So It must be the finals.

I don't know what you're thinking of. The women's tournament has had two #1 seeds in the finals several times, but never more than two years in a row.

[Déjà Bru]

Duke freshman star Cooper Flagg named the AP men's college basketball player of the year

Flagg joins Duke's Zion Williamson (2019), Kentucky's Anthony Davis (2012) and Texas star Kevin Durant (2007) as freshman winners. Each went either No. 1 or No. 2 overall in the NBA draft a few months later. Flagg is only 18 years old; that's difficult to keep in mind when you see him make a play like this.



https://x.com/DukeMBB/status/1876799400124514310/

Also, it's nice to see Rick Pitino get the credit that he deserves. He really turned around the St. Johns program in short order.

Auburn's Pearl and St. John's' Pitino share AP coach of the year honors, 1st tie in history of award

[Déjà Bru]

Final Four: Why this 'uncommon' UCLA team has worked out (and dominated) this college basketball season

On the women's side, it's hard to fathom that this is the first trip to the Final Four for UCLA. You associate that school with collegiate sports excellence and over the course of 40 years, you would think that they would have had a trophy or two.



UCLA vs. UCONN is a must-see game tonight on ESPN.

[pilight]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

On the women's side, it's hard to fathom that this is the first trip to the Final Four for UCLA. You associate that school with collegiate sports excellence and over the course of 40 years, you would think that they would have had a trophy or two.

They did make two Final Fours during the AIAW days, including winning a national championship in 1978 with Ann Meyers.