Now clocking in at 14 wins this century, not bad. (virginiasports.com)
Counting NCAA tournament wins since 2000 is little more than a blinkered exercise in setting arbitrary and subjective quantitative goalposts. Much like a good portion of real life. Right, let’s do this.
NCAA tournament National
wins since 2000 titles since 2000
1. Kansas 50 1
North Carolina 50 3
3. Duke 49 3
4. Michigan State 46 1
5. Kentucky 45 1
After Kentucky there’s a big drop — equivalent to one national championship run plus one more tournament win — before you get down to a plucky underdog with two national titles like Florida. No other program has won more than 35 games. (Full team list at the bottom of this post. Limber up your scrolling finger.)
In my experience, people are occasionally surprised to see that Kansas has the same number of wins as North Carolina and indeed one more victory than Duke. The secret sauce in Lawrence is actually pretty simple. In addition to, of course, winning it all in 2008 and getting to the title game in 2003 and 2012, KU just consistently gets to the round of 32. Bill Self’s guys have been there every single year since 2007. No one notices those wins in real time, but they add up.
On the other side of this coin a clear majority of the programs in Division I — 53 percent — has yet to win a single NCAA tournament game this century. That winless bunch includes the following major-conference programs:
Nebraska
Oregon State
Rutgers
TCU
Major conferences that have lots of teams tend to rack up NCAA tournament wins, though, to be fair, acquiring legacy programs from the Big East can also boost your league’s victory total:
Based on 2018-19 memberships
NCAA tournament
wins since 2000
1. ACC 252
2. Big Ten 201
3. SEC 163
4. Big 12 161
5. Pac-12 120
6. Big East 110
7. American 78
8. West Coast 43
9. Atlantic 10 40
10. Missouri Valley 28
11. Mountain West 21
There have been 167 winning teams in the NCAA tournament since 2000:
NCAA tournament
wins since 2000
1. Kansas 50
North Carolina 50
3. Duke 49
4. Michigan State 46
5. Kentucky 45
6. Florida 38
7. Connecticut 33
Wisconsin 33
9. Gonzaga 31
Syracuse 31*
11. Arizona 30
12. Louisville 28
Villanova 28
14. UCLA 27
15. Butler 22
Ohio State 22
Xavier 22
18. Maryland 21
19. Oklahoma 20
Michigan 20*
21. Oregon 19
Purdue 19
Texas 19
24. West Virginia 18
25. Illinois 17
26. Memphis 16
Pitt 16
Tennessee 16*
29. Indiana 14
Virginia 14
31. Marquette 13
Notre Dame 13
33. Cincinnati 12
Wichita State 12*
35. Baylor 11
Georgetown 11
Iowa State 11
Oklahoma State 11
Stanford 11
Texas Tech 11
41. Texas A&M 10
Kansas State 10*
NC State 10*
44. Florida State 9
LSU 9
Missouri 9
Washington 9
VCU 9*
49. Auburn 8
USC 8*
51. Georgia Tech 7
Miami 7
Utah 7
54. Alabama 6
Boston College 6
Nevada 6
San Diego State 6
Temple 6
Wake Forest 6
Dayton 6*
61. George Mason 5
Saint Joseph's 5
Southern Illinois 5
Tulsa 5
Vanderbilt 5
66. Cal 4
Creighton 4
Iowa 4
Kent State 4
Loyola Chicago 4
Mississippi State 4
Northern Iowa 4
Seton Hall 4
South Carolina 4
UAB 4
Brigham Young 4*
Ole Miss 4*
Saint Mary's 4
Western Kentucky 4*
Arizona State 4**
81. Arkansas 3
Davidson 3
Houston 3
Milwaukee 3
Murray State 3
Ohio 3
Saint Louis 3
UNLV 3
Virginia Tech 3
Washington State 3
Clemson 3*
Florida Gulf Coast 3*
La Salle 3*
Siena 3*
95. Bradley 2
Bucknell 2
Buffalo 2
Cornell 2
Georgia State 2
Harvard 2
Middle Tennessee 2
Minnesota 2
New Mexico 2
Pacific 2
Penn State 2
Rhode Island 2
Richmond 2
Stephen F. Austin 2
Hampton 2*
Morehead State 2*
North Dakota State 2*
Northwestern State 2*
South Florida 2*
Vermont 2*
Mount St. Mary's 2**
UNC Asheville 2**
117. Central Michigan 1
Charlotte 1
Cleveland State 1
Colorado 1
Colorado State 1
DePaul 1
Fresno State 1
George Washington 1
Georgia 1
Hawaii 1
Indiana State 1
Lehigh 1
Liberty 1
Little Rock 1
Manhattan 1
Mercer 1
Montana 1
Norfolk State 1
Northwestern 1
Old Dominion 1
Pepperdine 1
Providence 1
St. John's 1
San Diego 1
UC Irvine 1
UCF 1
UMBC 1
UNC Wilmington 1
Utah State 1
Winthrop 1
Wofford 1
Wyoming 1
Yale 1
Albany 1*
Belmont 1*
Cal Poly 1*
Fairleigh Dickinson 1*
Florida A&M 1*
Holy Cross 1*
James Madison 1*
Monmouth 1*
Niagara 1*
North Carolina A&T 1*
NC Central 1*
Oakland 1*
Radford 1*
Robert Morris 1*
St. Bonaventure 1*
UA Pine Bluff 1*
UC Davis 1*
UTSA 1*
* Won one game prior to round of 64
** Won two games prior to round of 64
The newest full-fledged no-asterisk members of this “We made it to the round of 32” club are Liberty, UC Irvine, UCF, and Wofford. Salute.
John Gasaway 