Top 10 March Madness Champions
by WIS.com's Paul Bessire & Lisa Heckaman, FCS.com, FOXSports.com
Since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985, the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament has been one of the most anticipated and exciting sporting events every year. With the Madness now complete for another 11 months, historical context can be a topic that can help college basketball fans make it to next March. En route to victory, the University of Kansas (KU) beat top overall seed North Carolina, fellow No. 1 seed Memphis and Cinderella team Davidson . How good was KU truly? Were the Jayhawks better than their previous incarnation under Danny Manning in 1988? What about the UNLV team that, like Memphis, dominated a weaker conference and ran teams out of the gym? Or, which Duke, Kentucky, UConn, Florida or North Carolina champion is each school's best?
To answer these questions and more we called on the WhatIfSports.com computer, which accurately predicted the Final Four, runner-up and champion in this season's tournament. To come up with this list of top 10 March Madness Champions in as fair a manner as possible, we "played" all 24 teams that have won it all since the tournament expanded against all of the other championship teams 100 times each -- that's over 25,000 games. Teams were then ranked by winning percentage from those games.
Before we get into the top 10 March Madness Champions, let's look at a few of the teams that did not make the cut. To advance through six consecutive games against mostly successful opponents every team needed a bit of luck. The 1988 Kansas squad, aptly nicknamed "Danny and the Miracles," needed a few miracles to win the championship 20 years ago and in this analysis, that Jayhawks team finished last, winning just 10% of its games. Florida, which won the two previous national championships to this season, was the only school among the six with multiple championships not to place a team in the top 10. However, the 2005-06 and 2006-07 Gators finished 13th and 11th, respectively. Just missing the cut were UCLA's 1994-95 team with the O'Bannon brothers and North Carolina's 1992-93 team with Eric Montross, finishing at 14th and 12th, respectively. Teams from the 1980s did not seem to do as well, but that is purely a fluke because several big underdogs like Villanova, Oklahoma, Indiana, and Louisville won the tournament that decade.
Number 10 2001-02 Maryland Terrapins Simulation winning percentage - 53.9%
Head Coach Gary Williams put together his most complete team of his Hall of Fame career with a good mix of heady players like Steve Blake and Lonny Baxter, defensive stoppers like Byron Mouton, freakish athletes like Chris Wilcox, and an all-around talent like Juan Dixon. Williams did not have to sweat too much over this team either, as it won all of its tournament games but one -- an eight-point win over UConn -- by double-digits.
Starters (typically): Steve Blake, Juan Dixon, Byron Mouton, Chris Wilcox, Lonny Baxter
Number 9
1993-94 Arkansas Razorbacks Simulation winning percentage - 54.8%
Nolan Richardson's "40 Minutes of Hell" included SEC Player of the Year Corliss Williamson and sharp-shooting Scotty Thurman who hit a three-point shot with 53 seconds left in the championship game to keep Duke from winning its third title in four seasons.
Starters: Corey Beck, Clint McDaniel, Scotty Thurman, Dwight Stewart, Corliss Williamson
Number 8 1997-98 Kentucky Wildcats Simulation winning percentage - 59.6%
The first of two UK teams in the top 10 and third consecutive squad to make the championship game, not much was expected of the Wildcats in 1997-98 after Rick Pitino and Ron Mercer left. However, the experienced and very balanced team rallied around new Head Coach Tubby Smith to defeat Keith Van Horn's Utah Utes and win the title.
Starters: Wayne Turner, Jeff Sheppard, Allen Edwards, Scott Padgett, Nazr Mohammed
Number 7
2003-04 Connecticut Huskies
Simulation winning percentage - 60.9%
Two future top three NBA picks in Ben Gordon and Emeka Okafor lead the way to give Jim Calhoun his second championship and best UConn team to date.
Starters: Taliek Brown, Gordon, Denham Brown, Okafor, Josh Boone
Number 6
1991-92 Duke Blue Devils
Simulation winning percentage - 61.7%
If it hadn't been for Christian Laettner departure in 1992, Kentucky may have had three teams on this list.
Starters: Bobby Hurley, Grant Hill, Thomas Hill, Brian Davis, Christian Laettner
Number 5
2007-08 Kansas Jayhawks
Simulation winning percentage - 63.9%
As we saw this season, Kansas had no weaknesses. Every team it played found a way to beat itself -- and that's not a fluke.
Starters: Russell Robinson, Mario Chalmers, Brandon Rush, Darrell Arthur, Darnell Jackson Number 4
1989-90 UNLV Runnin' Rebels
Simulation winning percentage - 75.2%
Kansas had a pretty good year, but there are clearly four dominant champions of the last 24 seasons. In 1989-90, with players like Larry Johnson, Greg Anthony and the "Plastic Man" Stacey Augmon, UNLV burst onto the scene running more than ever and averaging 93.5 points a game. Interestingly, this may not have been the best Runnin' Rebels team of the era, but Duke put a surprising win to an impressive win streak the next season to keep UNLV from repeating.
Starters: Greg Anthony, Anderson Hunt, Stacey Augmon, Larry Johnson, George Ackles The top 3 March Madness Champions are hardly surprising
Number 3
2004-05 North Carolina Tar Heels
Simulation winning percentage - 79.6%
To win a national championship, teams typically need a couple players with NBA talent. This team had four guys drafted in the first 14 picks of the 2005 NBA draft: Marvin Williams, No. 2; Raymond Felton, No. 5; Sean May, No. 13; and Rashad McCants, No. 14.
Starters: Raymond Felton, Rashad McCants, Jackie Manuel, Jawad Williams, Sean May
Number 2
1995-96 Kentucky Wildcats
Simulation winning percentage - 80.0%
Rick Pitino's lone championship team was one of the best of all-time. The Wildcats had incredible length (have you ever seen Tony Delk's arms?) and incredible depth with 10 players averaging between nine and 27 minutes a game.
Starters: Anthony Epps, Tony Delk, Derek Anderson, Walter McCarty, Antoine Walker Number 1
2000-01 Duke Blue Devils
Simulation winning percentage - 92.2%
Winning at a higher percentage here than they did during the regular season that year, this team had everything one could ask for in a basketball team -- great coaching, outside shooting (four starters hit more than 40 threes), ball-handling, athleticism, experience, unselfishness, balanced scoring (all five starters averaged more than 12 points), tenacious defense, and a strong sixth man providing an interior presence in Carlos Boozer.
Starters: Jason Williams, Chris Duhon, Mike Dunleavy, Nate James, Shane Battier
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You know it's a good team when Carlos Boozer comes off the bench. (Craig Jones / Getty Images)
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