Random Stat of the Week #2: Best College Basketball Programs of the 2010s

Photo Via: SI 

This past year the AP Poll ranked the best college football programs based on an aggregate of final AP Poll rankings, giving 25 points to each #1 finish, 24 points to each #2 finish, and so on until  1 point for each #25 finish. They also ranked the best programs of each decade using the same method.

This inspired me to do the same for the current decade in College Basketball. There is no Final AP Poll in College Basketball, however there is a Final Coaches Poll. I used the same method to rank the best programs since 2010 (The Season where Duke Beat Butler). This is not a perfect method of ranking the best programs especially since the Final Coaches Poll is especially skewed by the NCAA Tournament. An example of this is Loyola being ranked higher in the final coaches poll than Cincinnati last year. With that being said it is usually a good indicator when it comes to combing a teams regular season performance with their tournament results in a year.

Best Programs:

1. Kansas Jayhawks: 173
2. Kentucky Wildcats: 156
3. Duke Blue Devils: 155
4. Michigan State Spartans: 125
5. UNC Tar Heels: 118
6. Villanova Wildcats: 109
7. Louisville Cardinals: 96
8. Arizona Wildcats: 95
8. Syracuse Orange: 95
10. Wisconsin Badgers: 90
11. Florida Gators: 89
12. Ohio State Buckeyes: 84
13. Gonzaga Bulldogs: 82
14. Michigan Wolverines: 81
15. Virginia Cavaliers: 76
16. West Virginia Mountaineers: 71
17. Baylor Bears: 63
18. Wichita State Shockers: 62
19. Xavier Musketeers: 59
20. Purdue Boiler Makers: 58
20. Butler Bulldogs: 58
22. Oregon Ducks: 55
23. UCONN Huskies: 50
24. Indiana Hoosiers: 50
25. Notre Dame Fighting Irish: 49

Takeaways:

-The Jayhawks are Great at being very good: Despite not having a single national title this decade, Kansas ranked #1 by a wide margin. Kansas and Duke were the only teams to finish in the Top 25 each season. With the Jayhawks having 6 finishes of #6 or higher.

-Villanova is the king of the second half of the decade: Despite having 3 seasons in a row without finishing in the Top 25 the Wildcats still found a way to be #6.

-Familiar Faces at the Top: Many of the programs that have been dominating the College Basketball scene for decades, are in the Top 10. The Top 10 has a combined 32 titles between them.

-The strange case of UCONN: UCONN is tied with Villanova & Duke for the most national titles this past decade, but has half and a third of the points of the other two powers. This is because the only two times UCONN has finished in the Top 25, they finished #1. They are by far the most inconsistent team this decade, as they have had as many sub .500 seasons as national title seasons.

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