Best Ever in All 31 Conferences: Qualifying for the All-Time Tournament

We’ve decided to award automatic bids to the all-time champions from the 10 major conferences in our Value Add Basketball Game. Additionally, we’ll feature the best all-time team from each of the other 21 conferences and provide a bid to the top team among these 21 conference champions.

These automatic qualifiers are seeded from 13 to 20, meaning they’ll first face off against each other, and then aim for a major upset against one of the four undefeated tournament championship teams—the top 4 seeds from the 258 teams in the Value Add Basketball Game.

The other Sweet 16 matchups consist of the four runners-up from our four previous tournaments (seeds 5 to 8) facing off against the four highest-rated teams that didn’t receive an automatic bid by topping their respective conferences.

Below is a breakdown of the automatic qualifiers by conference, followed by a rundown of the best all-time team from each conference. The rating by each team is our version of the kenpom ratings, but compares each team to the "average" great team in our game, which is the rare team that both makes an Elite 8 AND is ranked in the top 8 for the whole season.

10 New All-Time Conference Champs Added to the Game

1. Northeast Conference (NEC)

   • Fairleigh Dickinson 2005 (Ranked 257, rating -23)
   • A strong team, this squad pushed 3 Quad A teams to the limit, including an overtime loss at Buffalo and close games against Arizona State and Illinois. Best Player: Gordon Klaiber, All-Conference.

2. Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC)

   • Norfolk St. 2012 (Ranked 255, rating -20)
   • Famous for their shocking victory over Missouri in the tournament. Best Player: Kyle O'Quinn, who later had an 8-year NBA career. While we received kudos from NBA teams for predicting Jimmy Butler would be an NBA star, we actually received more credit for picking O'Quinn as a long-time NBA player and saw the two face each other.

3. Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC)

   • Texas Southern 2013 (Ranked 254, rating -19)
   • Under former Indiana Coach Mike Davis, this team was one of the most improved in history, getting battered by 7 early Quad A games including a overtime challenge at Colorado before settling into a 12-game win streak to close the season. If it were not for probation put on the team before Davis' arrival, this team could have taken this hot streak to the SWACs first wins in the Field of 64. Best Player: Fred Sturdivant, All-Conference and Defensive Player of the Year.

4. Ohio Valley Conference (OVC)

   • Morehead St. 2011 (Ranked 249, rating -17)
   • Known for their upset of Louisville in the tournament. Murray State and Belmont dominated most OVC seasons, but we only consider teams still in a conference. Best Player: Kenneth Faried, Conference Player of the Year.

5. Colonial Athletic Association (CAA)

   • UNC Wilmington 2017 (Ranked 226, rating -11)
   • Narrowly lost to Virginia in the tournament. Best Player: Devontae Cacok, still active in the NBA.

6. Big West Conference (BW)

   • Utah St. 2003 (Ranked 221, rating -10)
   • Played Kansas closely in the tournament, having previously upset Ohio State. Best Player: Desmond Penigar, who played in the NBA.

7. America East Conference (AE)

   • Vermont 2020 (Ranked 197, rating -8)
   • Had a strong finish to the season before COVID-19 shut it down, with a 16-1 record. Best Player: Anthony Lamb, who went on to the NBA.

8. Summit League (Sum)

   • South Dakota St. 2012 (Ranked 196, rating -8)
   • A strong team that lost closely to Baylor in the tournament. Best Player: Nate Wolters, who went to the NBA after once scoring 38 of his 53 points in the second half of a come-from-behind win.

9. Big South Conference (BSth)

   • Winthrop 2007 (Ranked 156, rating -5)
   • Defeated Notre Dame in the tournament before falling to Oregon. Best Player: Craig Bradshaw, All-Conference.

10. Southern Conference (SC)

• Wofford 2019 (Ranked 114, rating -2)
• Defeated Seton Hall in the tournament before losing to Kentucky. Best Player: Fletcher Magee, Conference Player of the Year.

These 10 champions are new additions to our game and, while not in the all-time tournament, are primed for potential upsets in future matchups.

One Auto Bid for Best Champion from 11 Conferences with Fewer than 6 Great Teams

These conferences have fewer than six all-time great teams in the game, so only one auto bid is awarded to the best team from each:

1. Big Sky Conference (BSky)

   • Weber St. 2010 (Rating -19)
   • Known for Damian Lillard.

2. Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC)

   • Niagara 1970 (Rating -14.5)
   • Led by Calvin Murphy.

3. Sun Belt Conference (SB)

   • James Madison 2024 (Rating -12.5)
   • With Terrence Edwards.

4. Southland Conference (Slnd)

   • Stephen F. Austin 2016 (Rating -10.3)
   • Led by Thomas Walkup.

5. Mid-American Conference (MAC)

   • Bowling Green 1963 (Rating -4.3)
   • Featuring Nate Thurmond,.

6. Ivy League (Ivy)

   • Dartmouth 1944 (Rating -4.3)
   • Led by Dick McGuire.

7. Horizon League (Horz)

   • Detroit Mercy 1960 (Rating -1.8)
   • Featuring Dave DeBusschere.

8. Western Athletic Conference (WAC)

   • Seattle 1958 (Rating -2.8)
   • With Elgin Baylor.

9. Patriot League (Pat)

   • Holy Cross 1950 (Rating -1.4)
   • With Bob Cousy, this team has a 1-1 record in the game.

10. Missouri Valley Conference (MVC)

• Northern Iowa 2015 vs. Indiana State 1979
• Two teams that would likely have met in our all-time tournament conference championship, led by Seth Tuttle and Larry Bird.

Now we start getting into the teams actually in our 20-team all-time tournament field, so we will present the bracket:

1. Atlantic Sun Conference (ASun - and rated higher than all 20 previous conference champs to claim the one non-Power Conference Auto Bid)

   • Jacksonville 1970 (Rating -?)
   • Artis Gilmore leads this team into the all-time tournament as the top non-Power Conference Champion. They are the 19-seed on the bracket above.

The 10 All-Time Power Conferences with 6 All-Time Great Teams and Auto-Bid

These conferences have at least six all-time great teams in the game, and each of their champions earned an automatic bid to the tournament:

1. Atlantic 10 Conference (A10)

   • Loyola-Chicago (Seeded 20). A10 has 15 all-time great teams in the game. 

2. Conference USA (CUSA)

   • Western Kentucky 1969 (Seeded 18). CUSA has 6 great all-time teams in the game.

3. Mountain West Conference (MWC)

   • UNLV 1991 (Seeded 17). WCC has 9 all-time great teams in the game, San Francisco 1956 with Bill Russell is  WCC champ, 16-seed.  Note that Oregon State and Washington State are both in the WCC for this year only, then will rejoin the Pac-12 next year along with current Mountain West teams Utah State, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and Oregon State.

4. West Coast Conference (WCC)

   • San Francisco 1956 (Seeded 16). WCC has 9 all-time great teams in the game, San Francisco 1956 with Bill Russell is  WCC champ.

5. American Athletic Conference (Amer)

   • Cincinnati 1962 (Seeded 11). Amer has 7 all-time great teams in the game.

6. Big East Conference (BE)

   • Connecticut 2023 (Seeded 7).. 1.      BE has 31 all-time great teams in the game, and two will be in the All-time tournament. Connecticut 2023 goes into the tournament as one of the four tournament runners-up and (7-seed). Villanova 2018 will go in as the Big East champ because we had an extended conference schedule and they had the best record at 4-1 in conference play for a 15-seed.

7. Southeastern Conference (SEC)

   • Kentucky 2012 (Seeded 6). SEC has 32 all-time great teams in the game, and two Kentucky teams will make the tournament. Kentucky 2012 gets the higher seed as one of the four  tournament runners-up for the six seed (6-seed). The 1996 and 1978 Kentucky champs will face each other to break a tie and go as the SEC champ and a 14-seed.

8. Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC)

   • Duke 2011 (Seeded 5). ACC has 43 all-time great teams in the game, North Carolina 1982 was a tourn runner-up (5-seed).

9. Big 12 Conference (B12)

   • Kansas 1997 (Seeded 3). B12 has 30 all-time great teams in the game, Kansas 1997 goes in as one of the four tourn winners (3-seed), while Kansas 2008 goes in as the  B12 champs but also a best of rest for a higher 10-seed. 

10. Big Ten Conference (B10)

• UCLA 1972 (Seeded 1). B10 has 39 all-time great teams in the game now that it has the all-time great Pac-12 teams as well – and they fill 6 of the 20 spots in the all-time tournament. UCLA 1972 with Bill Walton goes in as the B10 champ – but gets the even higher 1-seed having won our first tournament when there were just 96 teams. They have two of the other all-time winners as well so will get three of the top four seeds with UCLA 1975 as the 2-seed, and the Fab 5 Michigan 1993 as the (4-seed). Michigan St. 2000 was a tournament runner-up so gets an 8-seed, UCLA 1964 is an at-large best of rest to be the 9-seed, and Indiana 1976 is also a best of the rest as the 12-seed.

These auto-bids ensure that the best teams from each power conference are well-represented in the all-time tournament.

With a mix of historical powerhouses and potential Cinderella stories, this all-time tournament promises plenty of excitement.

Cards for New Teams: Rhode Island 2017 and N. Iowa 2015 - and Dunk Range Explained in Walton vs. Tuttle

Northern Iowa's 2015 All-American center Seth Tuttle is the best player on the latest two Value Add Basketball Game teams (see the whole team and Rhode Island 2017 team below). In looking at his great card that leads to him score or be fouled, it may at first appear he is about the equal of Bill Walton. Walton has one more (traditional) 3-point plays, but Tuttle scores or is fouled on 1-15 to Walton's 1-14.

This is a good example of the importance of the Value Add Basketball Game "dunk range" and defensive adjustment to that range which adjusts cards for level of opposition faced and era. The fact is Tuttle's offensive scoring stats were roughly as dominant against the opponents he faced (the 2015 Missouri Valley Conference) so that part of the card is about as good as Walton's. However, Walton achieved about the same level of stats playing against the best teams in the country.

As we walkthrough the card, you will see the reason Walton calculates as the 2nd greatest college player ever in our mock draft, while Tuttle is not in the top 60 even though he was one of the top 10 players in the nation in 2015. 

As shown in the mock draft, an average team that added Walton would improve from 1.00 offense and defense (for a +0) to a 1.15 offense and 0.92 defense (+23). When running the same calculation, Tuttle improves the average team just to a +4 (1.02 offense and 0.98 defense).

Both players are dominant, getting teh ball on three numbers on the 8-sided die roll (you can pick 5, 7 and 8 or 5,6 and 8). 

Referring to the dunk chart in the instructions, Walton's 61-65 dunk range adjusted by Tuttle's Adj Dunk -2 leaves 11-63, which once adjusted by the chart is actually one higher than the maximum 51-66 so he scores any time that range comes up - regardless of what is on the 20-sided die.  On the flip side,  Tuttle's 51-52 dunk adjusted by Walton's defensive Adj Opp Dunk rate of -7 reverses his range with the ball to a 51-55 STOP range, meaning on 51-55 he automatically misses a shot and Walton grabs the rebound.

The wide range in level of opponents faced therefore is accounted for by the dunk range, and the actual advantage we would have expected Walton to have in his prime if playing against even an All-American like Tuttle.

Here are all 10 cards forboth of the new teams.

4 Previous Champs, only undefeated of 248 teams and get bye in 12-team tournament.

See scoresheets of the three games played Friday with our only two teams that still needed to debut – Rhode Island 2017 and Northern Iowa 2015 …

We have printed four batches of all-time great Value Add Basketball Game teams and each time finished a tournament to claim a champion, leaving just four undefeated teams of 248 all-time great teams. Being ready to now have them battle it out for one champion of all 248 teams, but rather than just play the four champs we took a page from the current 12-team college football championships playing out last night with a great game between Notre Dame and Penn State.

We decided to start by giving the four past champions the four byes to make the Elite 8.

The four teams that made those championship games then get home advantage in the first round games.

Then we will let the four “best of the rest” highest ranked teams into the tournament as the visitors, which does entail a precise home court advantage in the Value Add Basketball Game- as rolls of 36 or 66 can be reversed by the home team which gives an average home court advantage of 3 points per game.

We wanted each of the “best of the rest” contenders to have played at least four games to prove themselves worthy or not – so we decided to play the two semifinal losers from our most recent tournament as one game between 2-1 teams. We also had just created two other teams we’d missed earlier, Rhode Island 2017 and Northern Iowa 2015, and while they are not contenders, we like the idea that we have given all 248 teams a chance at least until they lose a game, so we decided to pit them against the best other 2-1 teams and have them play each other until each of the two lost a game.

Thursday Game 1 – Northern Iowa 2015 shocked Ohio State 1960, the best other 2-1 team, in our first game, using the perfect upset formula. Seth Tuttle showed why he was an All-American with 20 points and drawing 5 fouls against all-time legend John Lucas, and Northern Iowa had the ultimate 3-point shooting cards that can lead to upsets, with both Matt Bohannon and Paul Jesperson having unbelievable 1-6 three-point made ranges on the 20-sided die. As noted in this earlier blog, only 15% of double digit underdogs have pulled upsets in our games.

Its easy to see how Northern Iowa won four level-A games (www.kenpom.com term) including a double digit win over Iowa en route to a 31-4 record and won a tournament game for the first of two years in a row – the next year stunning Texas and then taking Texas A&M to overtime to just miss the Sweet 16.

Since they were allowed to play until they lost, that meant both they and our other debut team, Rhode Island 2017 cold both play the one top team with only two games played – 1-1 Kentucky 1978. In running the math in our KenPom type all-time ratings, we realized that Kentucky would need to beat both teams to improve to 3-1 and win the two games by a combined margin of +30 to make the tournament.

They looked impressive in both, beating Rhode Island 88-76 in a game in which all-time great point guard Kyle Macy took over with 13 of 14 free throws (he is a 90% shooter) and 31 points, and the only time he missed star center Rick Robey grabbed the rebound and put it in.

Macy scored another 26 points against Northern Iowa for a 91-80 win, but the combined margin of +23 still left them just 7 points short of making the 12-team tournament.

Here is the breakdown of all teams.

UCLA 1972 with Bill Walton  is 6-0 (16.2 Rating), ranked 1^st and gets a bye as 1st Champion for a 66-58 win over #10 UNC 1982.

Kansas 1997 with Paul Pierce is 5-0 (12.8 Rating), ranked 5^th and gets a bye as 2nd Champion for a 81-65 win over #14 Michigan State 2000.

Michigan 1993 with Chris Webber is 6-0 (10.2 Rating), ranked tied for 14^th and gets a bye as the 3^rd champion for a 70-66 over the other team tied for #14, Connecticut 2023.

UCLA 1975 with Dave Meyers is 4-0 (15.2 Rating), ranked 2^nd and gets a bye as the 4th Champion for a 83-62 #11 Kentucky 2012.

 

4 Previous Tournament Runners-up to those Teams host a playoff game vs. best of the rest. The home advantage is worth 3-points per game, as the home team can flip any roll of 36 to 66 to their advantage.

North Carolina 1982 with Michael Jordan and James Worthy is 5-1 (10.8 Rating) and ranked 10^th as runner up to #1 UCLA 1972 above.

Michigan St. 2000 with Mateen Cleaves is 4-1 (4.5 Rating) and ranked 41^st as runner up to #5 Kansas 1997 above.

Connecticut 2023 with Adama Sanogo is 5-1 (10.2 Rating) and ranked tied for 14^th as runner up to the other #14 team Michigan 1993.

Kentucky 2012 with Anthony Davis is 7-3 (10.6 Rating) and ranked 11^th as runner up to #2 UCLA 1975.

 

The following two teams will be two of the visitors against Runner-up teams to kick off the tournament

Kansas 2008 with Mario Chalmers is 5-1 (13.0 Rating), ranked 4^th and will be one of the four “best of the rest.

Indiana 1976 with Scott May is 3-1 (11.3 Rating) ranked 7^th and will be one of the four “best of the rest.

 

The final teams in the tournament will likely be Cincinnati 1962 AND UCLA 1964 unless one of them blows out the other in the remaining 3^rd place game from our 4^th tournament.

Cincinnati 1962 with Paul Hogue is 2-1 (14.7 rating), ranked 3^rd and will get an away game vs. a runner-up team above, unless they lose the remaining 4^th tournament 3^rd place game by at least 20 points to  UCLA 1964.

UCLA 1964 with Walt Hazzard is 2-1 (12.5 rating), ranked 6^th and will get an away game vs. a runner-up team above, unless they lose the remaining 4^th tournament 3^rd place game by at least 9 points to Cincinnati 1962.

 

If Cincinnati 1962 or UCLA  1964 above are eliminated, then it will leave a tie for the last spot between Duke 2001 with Shane Battier and Houston 1968 with Elvin Hayes, which are both 3-1, with identical 11.1 ratings that leave them tied for 8^th.

 

Not in Tournament

Kentucky 1978 with Jack Givens is 3-1 (10.5 Rating), and is ranked 12^th, and fell just short of making the tournament. They needed to beat Northern Iowa 2015 and Rhode Island 2017 by a combined margin of 30 points to make the tournament, and fell just seven points short with an impressive 88-76 win over Rhode Island 2017 and 91-80 over Northern Iowa.

Ohio St. 1960 with Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek is 2-2 (8.3 Rating) and ranked 20^th, and was ranked 6^th and would have been in the tournament before a stunning 85-89 loss to N. Iowa 2015.

Northern Iowa 2015 with All-American Seth Tuttle is 1-1 (0.0 Rating) and moved up from 139th to 87th with an impressive 89-85 upset of #20 Ohio State, which let them keep playing until they lost a game since every team gets a chance as long as they are undefeated, but they did lose the second game despite a good showing in a 76-88 loss to Kentucky 1978.

Rhode Island 2017, the last year before coach Danny Hurley left for UConn, is 0-1 (-7.3 Rating) after losing their opener 76-88 to Kentucky 1978, just dropped one spot from 182nd to 183^rd.

 

1975 UCLA Takes 4th Title, Moves Up to No.2 of 248 All-time teams

The 1975 UCLA team, the tallest of the 248 great teams in the Value Add Basketball Game with an average height of 6'9, won our 4th championship title game 83-62 to move up to 2nd in our all-time rankings.

The scoresheet is below the updated all-time Top 25. 

The 2012 Kentucky team lost title game and dropped to 7-3 and 12th place, one spot behind the 5-1 Michael Jordan's 1982 team that did beat this Kentucky team in the first tournament.

The break down of the current all-time 25 breaks down as this by year:

2000s - 10 teams, but only 2 in the Top 10 - Kansas 2008 as the best

1975-1999 - 7 teams, 2 in the top 10 - the two UCLA teams from 1972 and 1975

1942-1974 - 8 teams, 6 in the top 10 - Cincinnati 1962

We will next play the only two teams that have not yet played are Danny Hurley's 2017 Rhode Island team and Northern Iowa's 2015 team. 

There are only seven teams that started in our top 25 and have dropped out, and we added those teams below.

A personal note - YMCA championship team (and also Mississippi State's Sweet 16 team) Jamall Edmondson, faced 4 of the greatest teams ever in my game.

He faced Joakim Noah and the 17th greatest team ever in the 2006 and 2007 champion Florida Gators, Glen "Big Baby" Davis and LSU twice, and let's not forget BEATING George Mason's Final 4 team, who we rank as the 208th greatest ever.

Here is the list of the Top 25, and you can see where all 248 all-time great teams are ranked click here.

current	pres	current top 25	Yr	Star	W	L	Rat
1	1	UCLA	1972	Bill Walton #64 best all-time, #2 coll	6	0	16.2
2	11	UCLA	1975	Dave Meyers	4	0	15.2
3	2	Cincinnati	1962	Paul Hogue	2	1	14.7
4	56	Kansas	2008	Mario Chalmers	5	1	13
5	22	Kansas	1997	Paul Pierce #50	5	0	12.8
6	4	UCLA	1964	Walt Hazzard	2	1	12.5
7	8	Ohio St.	1960	Jerry Lucas #72, John Havlicek #29	2	1	11.8
8	9	Indiana	1976	Scott May	3	1	11.3
9	6	Duke	2001	Shane Battier	3	1	11.1
10	18	Houston	1968	Elvin Hayes #41	3	1	11.1
11	15	North Carolina	1982	Michael Jordan #1, James Worthy #59	5	1	10.8
12	3	Kentucky	2012	Anthony Davis #53	7	3	10.6
13	19	North Carolina	2005	Sean May	3	2	10.4
14	10	Connecticut	2023	Adama Sanogo	5	1	10.2
15	23	Michigan	1993	Chris Webber #65	6	0	10.2
16	16	Kentucky	1978	Jack Givens	1	1	9.6
17	26	Villanova	2018	Mikal Bridges	7	2	9.4
18	7	Kentucky	1996	Antoine Walker	2	1	9.2
19	5	UCLA	1967	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar #3	3	2	8.6
20	57	Baylor	2021	Jared Butler	2	2	8.6
21	13	Duke	1992	Christian Laettner	2	3	8.3
22	27	San Francisco	1956	Bill Russell #4	3	1	8.1
23	58	Connecticut	2004	Ben Gordon	5	2	7.9
24	34	Virginia	2019	Kyle Guy	4	1	7.9
25	28	Gonzaga	2017	Nigel Williams-Goss	3	3	7.1
current	preseason	dropped out of top 25
28	12	Cincinnati	1960	Oscar Robertson #12	1	2	7
26	14	UNLV	1991	Larry Johnson	2	3	7
72	17	Florida	2006	Joakim Noah	5	3	1
36	20	North Carolina St.	1974	David Thompson	2	1	6.2
60	21	North Carolina	1998	Vince Carter	2	1	2.3
65	24	Michigan	1989	Glen Rice	0	2	2
39	25	Connecticut	1996	Ray Allen #52	1	1	5.2

AD Greatest Game Ever Puts Kentucky 2012 in All-time final vs. UCLA 1975

 Anthony Davis showed why his card was the 12th best in our all-time mock draft, and he remains the greatest college basketball player of the century.

Against one of the greatest rebounders and teams of all time in Paul Hogue and 1962 Cincinnati, Davis put up an astounding 25 point, 18 rebound, 6 blocked shot game and drew 5 fouls to send Hogue to the bench with 3 minutes to play. It was just enough for 2012 Kentucky to pull off the 75-72 semifinal win and out them into the finals against 1975 UCLA.

Cincinnati still drops only one spot in our Pomeroy-like ratings, calculating as 14.7 points better than the average great team in the game - behind only the winner of our first tournament 1972 UCLA at +16.2.

Kentucky's win moves the up to 5th all time, while their finals opponent 1975 in 3rd.  Bill Walton's 1972 team will remain No. 1 regardless of the result of the championship, as the highest game score a team can get is 25, so even a UCLA 1975 win by at least 5 points would only push them up to a +15.2 for second place.

1. UCLA 1972 - 6-0 and +16.2 rating

2. Cincy 1962 - 2-1 and +14.7 

3. UCLA 1975 - 3-0 and +13.6

4. Kansas 2008 - 5-1 and +13.0

5. Kentucky 2012 - 7-2 and +12.8

6. Kansas 1997 - 5-0 and +12.8

7. UCLA 1964 - 2-1 and +12.5

8. Ohio State 1960 - 2-1 and +11.8

9. Indiana 1976 - 3-1 and +11.3

10. Duke 2001 - 3-1 and +11.1

11th to 20th are 

No. 1 UCLA 1964 TOO SMALL for 1975 UCLA, 87-64

 The 1964 UCLA starters were all 6'5 or under and would have faced the ultimate modern "too small" taunt from the UCLA team from 11 years later, a team that had a 6'4 point guard and four other players who averaged 6'11.

As you can see from the scoresheet, the giant 1975 squad dominated the previous No. 1 squad 87-64 to advance to the final game against the winner of now No. 1 Cincinnati 1962 vs. No. 7 Kentucky 2012.

Here is the updated top 10, as the 1975 UCLA squad rises to No. 3:

1. Cincy 1962 - 2-0 and +16.6 rating

2. UCLA 1972 - 6-0 and +16.2

3. UCLA 1975 - 3-0 and +13.6

4. Kansas 2008 - 5-1 and +13.0

5. Kansas 1997 - 5-0 and +12.8

6. UCLA 1964 - 2-1 and +12.5

7. Kentucky 2012 - 6-2 and +11.8

8. Ohio State 1960 - 2-1 and +11.8

9. Indiana 1976 - 3-1 and +11.3

10. Duke 2001 - 3-1 and +11.1

All-Time Final 4 Teams Rise in Top 10 Ever

We updated our ranking of the 248 great all-time Value Add Basketball Game teams, and the teams that made the Final 4 of our 4th tournament are all in the Top 10.

Anthony Davis. 2012 Kentucky team started the season 3rd, but dropped after a couple of early losses, but dominated in this tournament and is all the way back up to 6th with a 6-2 mark as one of the original 21st century teams. They will face a team from two hours away, the 1962 Cincinnati squad with another dominant big man in Paul Hogue - a team we ranked as 2nd of all time based on their cards and is still 2nd place heading into this game.

The first and last teams of the 12-year UCLA dominance meet in the other semifinal. It is the all-time height mismatch. Dave Meyers leads the final team of the run, 1975, which features a 6-foot-4 point guard and four other players who average 6'11. They face the first team of the run, the 1964 squad that featured no starter taller than 6'5. However, itis the 1964 squad that has moved from 4th to 1st place all-time heading into the game, while the 1975 squad has moved up from 11th to 9th. 

The 1972 UCLA team won the first 96-team tournament and has still not played since then, and was ranked first until this week when both the 1964 squad and the Cincinnati 1962 team passed them for 1st and 2nd.  The two Kansas teams are surprises, starting the season at a strong but not elite 56th and 22nd of all time before Kansas 1997 won our second tournament, and won our second tournament while the 2008 team just dominated a season of all-time Big 12 teams.

You can review the ranking of all 248 teams and all game results on this google sheet.

The Final 4 teams are in red.

    

Rnk	Pre	Teams	Yr	Star	Conf	W	L	Rat	Pre	Off	OffR	Def	DefR	SOS	SoSR
1	4	UCLA	1964	Walt Hazzard	SEC	2	0	18.6	14	81.5	16	68.5	40	5	13
2	2	Cincinnati	1962	Paul Hogue	Amer	2	0	16.6	16	76.5	46	68.5	42	2	59
3	1	UCLA	1972	Bill Walton #64	B10	6	0	16.2	17	72	87	62	6	5	18
4	56	Kansas	2008	Mario Chalmers	B12	5	1	13	2	74.7	62	56	1	1	80
5	22	Kansas	1997	Paul Pierce #50	B12	5	0	12.8	7	76.8	42	62.4	9	0	95
6	3	Kentucky	2012	Anthony Davis #53	SEC	6	2	11.8	15	75.6	51	66.3	31	-2	121
7	8	Ohio St.	1960	Jerry Lucas #72, John Havlicek #29	B10	2	1	11.8	10	84	13	76.3	114	2	56
8	9	Indiana	1976	Scott May	B10	3	1	11.3	10	71.3	97	59.8	4	-2	123
9	11	UCLA	1975	Dave Meyers	SEC	2	0	11.3	10	75	56	72.5	82	4	22
10	6	Duke	2001	Shane Battier	ACC	3	1	11.1	12	78.3	33	72.5	81	5	14