With football season now in the rear-view mirror, it's time we turn our attention towards college basketball as March Madness is looming large.
It's a battle between 64 teams in a single-elimination format, shaping up to be one of the most entertaining post seasons in all of sports. Only one team can be crowned champion, so let's see who is in the best position to do so according to KenPom.
National Title Contenders per KenPom
For those of you who are unaware of KenPom, Kenpom.com is a college basketball advanced statistics website built by Ken Pomeroy. Within the site, you can dig deeper into teams' statistical profiles at a deeper level to help get a better understanding of how they shape up ahead of tournament time.
Over the course of 20+ years, every national champion has "fit" a certain criterion before tournament play. That criterion is as follows:
- A teams Adjusted Offensive Efficiency (AdjO) must be 25th or lower
- A team must be 50th or lower when combining their top-25 AdjO with their AdjD
You may have noticed that I used quotations when I used the word fit and that is because only one national champion has not fit the mold. That team is the 2014 Connecticut Huskies who went on a magical run in order to cut down the nets. It's worth noting that UConn still had a top-50 combined efficiency metric, only being disqualified for their AdjO which clocked in at 39th.
This doesn't disqualify other teams from being able to make a run, but history indicates that a team that fits this mold will cut down the nets. Sports bettors can use this list to help wager on futures for a chance to make a profit while bracket enjoyers can narrow down their champion with this list as well.
Here are the teams who currently fit the mold as a potential national contender, listed in order of AdjO.
- Purdue
- UConn
- Arizona
- Illinois
- BYU
- Duke
- Tennessee
- Houston
- Auburn
- Creighton
- Marquette
- North Carolina
- Michigan State
Reminder, this list is constantly updating all the way up until tournament play. Be sure to check who fits the mold as we near March Madness as this list may feature new faces ahead of tournament time.
