Re: March Madness 2012
This is really the first time since 1989 all the 1 seeds have made it? There must be a lot of years where 3 of them make it because I pay some moderate attention to the game and I assumed years like this were the norm. The article speaks of "parity" but that's not really true. UConn, Baylor, ND, Stanford and Tennessee are still running the show. In fact, looking at the bracket there were only seven upsets this year in the whole tournament compared to about 20 for the men.
There actually has been about the same amount of "parity" in the women's final as in the men's final. I don't have statistics handy for the Final Four however, just for the Championship game.
Since 1982, including this year, there will have been 31 women's tournaments.
In that time,
> 25 different teams have made it to the Championship game.
> 14 teams have won (each of this year's Final Four teams have won at least once). Tennessee has won 8 and UConn has won 7 (four of them over Tennessee!
), which means that between them they've won 15 and the other 12 have won 16 (assuming UConn will not win this year).
> 11 teams have made it to the Championship game at least once, without winning it.
Since 1982, including this year, there will have been 31 men's tournaments.
> 28 different teams have made it to the Championship game (each of this year's Final Four teams has made it at least once, 3 of the four have won it at least once).
> 19 teams have won (none have been as dominant as Tennessee or UConn on the women's side; Duke has 4, UConn and North Carolina have 3).
> 9 teams have made it to the Championship game at least once, without winning it (including Ohio State)
If you exclude Tennessee and UConn's totals from the women's side, the women have seen more "parity" in the Championship game than the men. Pat Summitt won most of her titles while the women's game was still developing (2 in the 1980s, 4 in the 1990s, 2007 and 2008), and Geno Auriemma is a coaching genius, recognized as such by John Wooden (whose tactics and strategies inspired Geno). UConn won 6 titles in 11 years under Geno (so far....fingers crossed); UCLA won 10 titles in 12 years under Wooden. I consider those outliers.
The women's game today is at a similar stage as the men's game in the second half of the 1970s, I'd say. Players stay all four years before turning pro, and there is continuity in most programs because coaching turnover isn't as high.
