March Madness 6 - The Hottest Teams

One factor fans love is to pick the hottest team. I've actually found this is often overrated, as sometimes a team just needs to get on the court against a non-conference team that does not already have them scouted. However, it is certainly worth taking a look.

The two scary hot teams entering the tournament are Iowa and Arkansas, how have been better than everybody except Gonzaga since February 1.

We do a bit of reverse engineering on this by comparing each teams current www.kenpom.com rating now to what it was at the end of January. Therefore since Iowa's rating was only 18.86, we know they had to be approximately a 31.88 in February and March to get the rating all the way up to its current 23.2.

Likewise, Arkansas was just a 15.21, and have played approximately 30.03 since then. 

Gonzaga and Arizona have actually played only slightly better, and a little worse respectively, but at that level they have still been the 1st and 9th best team in the country during that stretch.

 

Feb/Mar Rnk	Team	Conf	Jan 30 2022	Now	Feb/March
1	Gonzaga	WCC	32.69	33.06	33.8
2	Iowa	B10	18.86	23.2	31.88
3	Arkansas	SEC	15.21	20.15	30.03
4	Tennessee	SEC	23.08	24.4	27.04
5	Kansas	B12	24.31	25.21	27.01
6	Duke	ACC	23.93	24.88	26.78
7	Texas Tech	B12	24.13	25	26.74
8	Memphis	Amer	12.56	16.6	24.68
9	Arizona	P12	28	26.8	24.4
10	San Francisco	WCC	15.45	18.35	24.15
11	UCLA	P12	25.75	25.19	24.07
12	San Diego St.	MWC	15.37	18.26	24.04
13	Kentucky	SEC	28.78	27.07	23.65
14	Saint Mary's	WCC	19.03	19.77	21.25
15	Houston	Amer	27.9	25.53	20.79
16	Virginia Tech	ACC	14.97	16.89	20.73
17	Colorado St.	MWC	13.91	15.85	19.73
18	Baylor	B12	29.72	26.35	19.61
19	Rutgers	B10	6.55	10.83	19.39
20	Auburn	SEC	27.35	24.46	18.68
21	Murray St.	OVC	15.4	16.41	18.43
22	Texas A&M	SEC	11.44	13.73	18.31
23	TCU	B12	13.35	14.91	18.03
24	Villanova	BE	27.22	24.13	17.95
25	Texas	B12	21.88	20.42	17.5
26	Davidson	A10	12.86	14.36	17.36
27	Notre Dame	ACC	11.95	13.6	16.9
28	Creighton	BE	11.7	13.42	16.86
29	Illinois	B10	20.93	19.54	16.76
30	Boise St.	MWC	16.07	16.29	16.73
31	Princeton	Ivy	1.38	6.48	16.68
32	North Carolina	ACC	15.81	16.05	16.53
33	SMU	Amer	12.39	13.66	16.2
34	Connecticut	BE	20.95	19.32	16.06
35	Vermont	AE	10.48	12.23	15.73
36	Wake Forest	ACC	14.81	15	15.38
37	Seton Hall	BE	14.73	14.94	15.36
38	Michigan	B10	16.03	15.61	14.77
39	Oklahoma	B12	16.71	16.04	14.7
40	Purdue	B10	26.86	22.69	14.35
41	South Dakota St.	Sum	10.11	11.39	13.95
42	Wyoming	MWC	12.75	13.05	13.65
43	UAB	CUSA	13.97	13.8	13.46
44	Providence	BE	14.07	13.84	13.38
45	New Mexico St.	WAC	7.64	9.45	13.07
46	Miami FL	ACC	12.75	12.66	12.48
47	LSU	SEC	22.65	19.15	12.15
48	Saint Peter's	MAAC	0.2	4.03	11.69
49	Wisconsin	B10	17.42	15.51	11.69
50	Alabama	SEC	20.49	17.37	11.13
51	Kent St.	MAC	-0.94	3.06	11.06
52	Richmond	A10	8.29	9.2	11.02
53	Ohio St.	B10	18.87	15.78	9.6
54	USC	P12	17.01	14.45	9.33
55	Marquette	BE	16.37	14	9.26
56	Indiana	B10	17.55	14.76	9.18
57	Chattanooga	SC	12.49	11.3	8.92
58	Colgate	Pat	2.17	4.2	8.26
59	Georgia St.	SB	-1.37	1.82	8.2
60	BYU	WCC	16.77	13.8	7.86
61	Long Beach St.	BW	-1.21	1.67	7.43
62	Longwood	BSth	0.3	2.55	7.05
63	Iowa St.	B12	17.87	13.99	6.23
64	Montana St.	BSky	1.74	3.06	5.7
65	Wright St.	Horz	-4.16	-0.89	5.65
66	Norfolk St.	MEAC	-2.63	-0.13	4.87
67	Akron	MAC	1.24	2.36	4.6
68	Louisiana Tech	CUSA	9.4	7.71	4.33
69	Michigan St.	B10	20.46	14.84	3.6
70	Cal St. Fullerton	BW	1.45	2.06	3.28
71	Delaware	CAA	2.24	2.34	2.54
72	Bryant	NEC	-2.68	-0.99	2.39
73	Yale	Ivy	2	1.77	1.31
74	Xavier	BE	18.71	12.87	1.19
75	Jacksonville St.	ASun	5.3	2.27	-3.79
76	Northern Colorado	BSky	-2.17	-2.79	-4.03
77	Texas A&M Corpus Chris	Slnd	-7.49	-6.68	-5.06
78	Southeastern Louisiana	Slnd	-10.34	-8.73	-5.51
79	Texas Southern	SWAC	-0.41	-2.23	-5.87