Musketeer Madness

Facts: Butler made the National Title game two years straight and finished second both years 2. Calipari has been a college basketball coach for 25 years and has ONE National Title. 3. Calipari at UMass and Memphsis teams were in title games but finished 2nd. At Kentucky Calpari has had the best of high school players come to him and Kentucky...18 one and done players and 21 first round NBA draft picks. Calipari and Kentucky have one national title under Calipari. 4. Tens of millions of dollars every year for 8 years to buy titles thru a coach and the best players and ONE title to show for it. 5. Who is in the FF this year...3 of the 4 teams that have never been in the FF or not since 1939....6. The blue bloods will be home watching??? Cannot always get to the FF or win. About 90 % of the schools have never won the title and many never will.

Correction: Only 35 schools have won a Division One Men's Basketball NCAA title....35 out of over 350 schools that is 1%. 99% have never won the title....not 90%.

no, 10%. you were right the first time

Only about 89 teams (25%) have ever made a final four.

Only 56 (16%) have made it more than once.

Many of these teams have not been there in very many years...

With the exception of UCLA, IU and UK, most teams with multiple championships under their belts have 3 or 4 Final Four appearance per championship: UCLA (1.6:1), IU (1.6:1), UK (2.1:1), Duke (3.2:1), Louisville (3.3:1), UNC (4:1), MSU (4.5:1), Kansas (4.7:1), etc.

Some of the teams with many final four appearances only have one championship to show for it (like OSU, who has been to the final four 11 times, but only had one championship in 1960).

And there are a few teams with multiple final four appearances but no championships (like Oklahoma and Illinois with 5 final fours and no championships).

The stars really have to align even for an elite team to win 4 games against increasingly more difficult talent. Only one per year can win all 6.

A trip to the Elite Eight is a pipe dream for 50% of D-1 schools.

We should be proud to have been there three times in just over a decade! We should also be very optimistic about the fact that our coach has just made his first Elite Eight on a "down year". Overcoming the loss of a the team leader, an early injury to an important role player (Gates), and a late(r) season injury to our top NBA prospect (Sumner) reflects very well on the team and the coaches. The facts that recruiting continues to improve and that Mack may just be here for years to come bode well for our future.

Big East regular season and/or tournament championship and a Final Four appearance are achievable goals in the next couple of years!!

Oh, and for at least 90% of schools, a trip to the Elite Eight or beyond probably means that they will have a new coach the next year and will be starting over from scratch.

We are very lucky...