Hot or Not? Average Winning Streak Entering Tourney Same as Florida (Six)
April 7th, 2025 - 22:43
Which cliche is most accurate? If a team is on a winning streak entering the NCAA Tournament, it has momentum on its side and is peaking at the right time. On the other hand, some observers contend a loss before the start of the playoffs is deemed a wake-up call. Two years ago, Connecticut became the seventh champion in previous nine tourneys to enter playoffs on a losing note. Last season, UConn repeated entering the tourney with the most triumphs of the previous 10 kingpins (seven), which is one more than Florida had this campaign.
All of Duke's champions under coach Mike Krzyzewski entered the NCAA tourney with fewer than eight straight triumphs. Since the last undefeated team in Division I (Indiana was 32-0 in 1975-76), there have been 48 national champions. Twenty-six of those squads entered the tourney on a winning streak and 22 entered with a defeat. The longest winning streak of a champion-to-be in that span was by UCLA, which won 13 in a row in 1995 before posting six more triumphs in the playoffs. Louisville accounted for two of the other double-digit victory streaks for champions-to-be entering the playoffs.
Of the 26 aforementioned squads entering on a winning note, the average winning streak was same as Florida's six in a row. Following in reverse order is how those 48 post-unbeaten IU titlists entered the NCAA playoffs (including conference tournaments):