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Big 10 Tourney Championship and NCAA Results Research(Long)

archmage2002

HR All-American
Sep 8, 2002
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I researched how the BTT Champion handles the NCAA Tourney after the win. I was under the impression that they struggle in the NCAA tourney but it's not quite cut and dried. It goes Team, Seed, Day Played, Round Lost, and 1st Game Score

Michigan – #3 Seed – Friday – Round 32 - 80-61
Michigan State - #1 Seed – Friday – Final Four - 76-53.
Michigan State - #1 Seed – Thursday – NCAA Champions - 65-38
Iowa - #7 Seed – Thursday – Round 32 - 69-56
Ohio State - #4 Seed – Thursday – Round 32 - 69-64
Illinois – #4 Seed - Thursday – Round 32 - 65-60
Wisconsin - #6 Seed – Friday – Round 32 - 76-64
Illinois - #1 Seed – Thursday – Championship Game - 67-55
Iowa - #3 Seed – Friday – Round 64 - 63-64
Ohio State - #1 Seed – Thursday – Championship Game - 78-57
Wisconsin - #3 Seed – Thursday – Sweet 16 - 71-56
Purdue - #5 Seed – Thursday – Sweet 16 - 61-56
Ohio State - #2 Seed – Friday – Sweet 16 - 68-51
Ohio State - #1 Seed – Friday – Sweet 16 - 75-46
Michigan State - #1 Seed – Friday – Sweet 16 - 89-67
Ohio State - #2 Seed – Friday – Elite 8 - 95-70
Michigan State - #4 Seed – Thursday – Elite 8 - 93-78
Wisconsin - #1 Seed – Friday – Championship Game - 86-72
Michigan State - #2 Seed – Friday – Round 64 - 81-90
Michigan - #7 Seed – Friday – Sweet 16 - 92-91
Michigan - #3 Seed – Thursday – Championship Game - 61-47
Michigan State - #2 Seed – Thursday – Final Four - 76-65
Covid-19
Illinois - #1 Seed – Friday – Round 32 - 78-49
Iowa - #5 Seed – Thursday – Round 64 - 63-67

Interesting Statistics to Note:
Thursday and Fridays are a perfect 50/50: 12/24.
Thursday Teams had: 1 Round 64, 3 Round 32, 2 Sweet 16's, 1 Elite 8, 1 Final 4, 3 Championship Games, 1 Champion.
Friday Teams Had: 2 Round 64, 3 Round 32, 4 Sweet 16's, 1 Elite 8, 1 Final 4, 1 Championship Game.
Iowa has 2 of the 3 Round 64 Losses.
9/24 Teams have won by double digits when playing on Friday. 2 Teams Lost(Iowa/MSU), 1 team won by a single point.
3/24 Teams have had 2 score games when playing on Thursdays. 1 team Lost(Iowa), 8/24 won by double digits.
Average Margin of Victory by teams that won on Friday: 21.2 points. (Excludes Iowa/MSU)
Average Margin of Victory by Teams that won on Thursday: 13 points. (Excludes Iowa)

Make of these statistics what you will. This was a lot more work than I expected so I am going to take a break.
 
My eyes hurt
I suck at formatting on the internet, your free to try and fix it. One of the things that stand out to me besides Iowa sucking donkey balls in the 1st Round is how there is an 8 point difference in the Average Margin of Victory between Thursday/Friday games.
 
Not paying much attention to your Thurs/Fri stats, but what I do notice is that the BTT champ got at least to the Sweet 16 for a 9 consecutive year stretch, which was in the middle of a 13 out of 15 year stretch. So, that tells me that everyone's brilliant "BTT wears the teams out" theory don't look so accurate. Turns out Iowa just sucks in NCAA Tourney play all by themselves.
 
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I think the summary is winning BTT is bad news for Iowa in NCAA tourney. Also losing in BTT is bad news for Iowa in NCAA tourney.
Kinda hard to find something that is "good news" for Iowa regarding the NCAA Tourney since they've had 1 whole Sweet 16 since the BTT started in 1998. Kinda like trying to find something about the Big Ten West football season that bodes well for a good showing in the BTCG.

Edit - I know there's not a lot of data here, but I believe that BTT champs whose senior leader spends the next 48 hours rage Tweeting instead of getting himself and his teammates mentally focused on the next game are 0-1 in the NCAA Tourney, so we should keep that in mind.
 
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