More from our friends at ESPN

[St. Louis Hawk]

I'm no math major, but isn't the record of the Top 5 - 83-13, not 83-22??

Oklahoma 16-2
UNC 18-2
Iowa 16-3
Kansas 16-3
A&M 17-3

Total 83-13

 

[binsfeldcyhawk2]

I believe they're going by the teams records WHILE they're in the top 5.....

 

[CO_hawk]

Something about all the top5 losses this year.

 

[Suterman]

I don't care about last year. We are great this year and it's a good year to be great. We can make some serious waves.

 

[icantfindausernamethatisntused]

There is a lot of parity in college basketball this year. Consider these overall stats from Kenpom:

Overall Pythagorean (i.e. overall efficiency) Ratings:

• Last year's #1 team (Kentucky): 0.9757
• Last year's #10 team (Wichita State):0.9073
  • Overall difference between #1 and #10 = 0.0684
• This year's #1 team (Oklahoma): 0.9501
• This year's #22 team (Indiana): 0.8885
  • Overall difference between #1 and #22 = 0.0616

In summary: this year there is a smaller difference between the #1 and #22 ranked teams than last year's #1 and #10 ranked teams. Last year Michigan State made the Final Four as the #15 ranked team in the Kenpom rankings and were legitimate title contenders. The difference between them and #1 Kentucky was 0.0856. If we apply the same threshold this year to determine legitimate title contenders, that easily includes any team ranked in the top 25.

This year's race is wide open, which is why so many teams that make it to the top 5 don't last there very long. Hopefully Iowa can buck this trend.