Hot or Not: None of UConn's 4 Titlists Entered Tourney With Long Win Streak
Which cliche is most accurate? If a team is on a winning streak entering the NCAA Tournament, it has momentum on its side and is peaking at the right time. On the other hand, some observers contend a loss before the start of the playoffs is deemed as a wake-up call. All four of Connecticut's champions in the last 16 years entered the tourney with fewer than six straight triumphs.
Since the last undefeated team in Division I (Indiana was 32-0 in 1975-76), there have been 38 national champions. Twenty-two of those teams entered the tourney with a victory; 16 entered with a defeat after UConn bowed against Louisville in the American Athletic Conference Tournament. The longest winning streak of a champion-to-be in that span was by UCLA, which won 13 in a row in 1995 before posting six more triumphs in the playoffs. Louisville accounted for two of the other double-digit victory streaks for champions-to-be entering the playoffs.
Of the 22 aforementioned squads entering on a winning note, the average winning streak was six in a row. Following in reverse order is how those 38 post-unbeaten IU titlists entered the NCAA playoffs (including conference tournaments):