Since the 2010-11 season, teams from eleven conferences have dominated the tournament. I thought it would be interesting to look at the data to see which conferences are the most (and least) dominated by their two best performing teams. The following numbers are the percentage of total conference units earned (games won + appearances) that were earned by the two top earning schools (a high number is bad, a low number good, IMO):

MVC... .950
WCC... .839
SEC... .595
AAC... .581
MWC.. .577
PAC... .493
A10... .489
B12... .416
B1G... .372
BE..... .370
ACC... .266

To clarify, these are the total units earned over the seven year span, regardless of what conference each school was a member of when they earned them, divided by the total earned by all the schools currently in that conference. This is intended to show conferences as they are now constituted, not as they were once constituted (realignment plays havoc with these analyses).

Jon Wilner gives more useful information

http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/03/28/co...-big-east/

For years and years I used to say that if you take out Kentucky, SEC basketball is about the same as the Atlantic 10.

Conference memberships have changed (Xavier and Temple swapped for VCU, George Mason, and Davidson), and the SEC has hired some great coaches in recent years so it's not quite true any more. But ken's numbers show that it's still closer to truth than falsehood.

(03-28-2017 06:46 PM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  For years and years I used to say that if you take out Kentucky, SEC basketball is about the same as the Atlantic 10.

Conference memberships have changed (Xavier and Temple swapped for VCU, George Mason, and Davidson), and the SEC has hired some great coaches in recent years so it's not quite true any more. But ken's numbers show that it's still closer to truth than falsehood.

If you also take out Florida, it's worse. Between them, KY and FL earned 47 units during that time. The next highest team had 5 (South Carolina had that many this year)!

If Wichita were to join the AAC, it would leave the MVC with only two wins in 7 years, both by Northern Iowa.

Gonzaga and the WCC is similar. If the Big East could handle the geography the WCC would be dead.

The SEC has worked hard to build up Basketball depth. They are no longer the weakling among the power conferences. Frank the Tank said Kansas would not go to the SEC because Basketball was their main sport. But I think he sells the SEC short.

(03-28-2017 08:52 PM)ken d Wrote:  

(03-28-2017 06:46 PM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  For years and years I used to say that if you take out Kentucky, SEC basketball is about the same as the Atlantic 10.

Conference memberships have changed (Xavier and Temple swapped for VCU, George Mason, and Davidson), and the SEC has hired some great coaches in recent years so it's not quite true any more. But ken's numbers show that it's still closer to truth than falsehood.

If you also take out Florida, it's worse. Between them, KY and FL earned 47 units during that time. The next highest team had 5 (South Carolina had that many this year)!

If Wichita were to join the AAC, it would leave the MVC with only two wins in 7 years, both by Northern Iowa.

Short memories. The SEC was a very solid but underrated conference from the mid-80s when Auburn, Alabama and LSU rose, until about 5-10 years ago. They've been in a slump other than Kentucky since then. For some reason the Pac 12 has been in a similar slump.

(03-28-2017 10:55 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(03-28-2017 08:52 PM)ken d Wrote:  

(03-28-2017 06:46 PM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  For years and years I used to say that if you take out Kentucky, SEC basketball is about the same as the Atlantic 10.

Conference memberships have changed (Xavier and Temple swapped for VCU, George Mason, and Davidson), and the SEC has hired some great coaches in recent years so it's not quite true any more. But ken's numbers show that it's still closer to truth than falsehood.

If you also take out Florida, it's worse. Between them, KY and FL earned 47 units during that time. The next highest team had 5 (South Carolina had that many this year)!

If Wichita were to join the AAC, it would leave the MVC with only two wins in 7 years, both by Northern Iowa.

Short memories. The SEC was a very solid but underrated conference from the mid-80s when Auburn, Alabama and LSU rose, until about 5-10 years ago. They've been in a slump other than Kentucky since then. For some reason the Pac 12 has been in a similar slump.

Perhaps the SEC is in a slump. But as for short memories, those three schools you mentioned have combined for only 5 Sweet Sixteen appearances in the last 25 years. For many fans, 25 years qualifies as a long time.