Teams With the Most Q1 Wins Dominate the NCAA Tournament

Does it really matter how many Quadrant 1 wins a team has?  Do Quadrant 1 (Q1) wins give any indication of how a team will perform in the NCAA Tournament?  Yes, it does.  I’ve already shown how each of the last 15 champions entered the tournament with at least nine Q1 wins.  Here is a deeper look at teams with 9+ Q1 wins and how they did in the tournament.

Interesting Facts About 9+ Q1-win Teams From the Last 15 Tournaments

  • Number of championship games where both teams had 9+ Q1 wins:  11
  • Number of Final Fours where all four teams had 9+ Q1 wins:  6
  • In 2013, only three tournament teams had 9+ Q1 wins and two of them met in the championship game
    • 1-Louisville won it all
    • 4-Michigan reached the Final
    • 2-Duke reached Elite 8 (where they lost to Louisville)
  • There have been five teams seeded higher than a 5-seed with 9+ Q1 wins.  They all did well
    • 2014, 7-Connecticut won the championship
    • 2014, 8-Kentucky reached the championship game
    • 2015, 6-Xavier reached the Sweet 16
    • 2015. 7-Michigan State reached the Final Four
    • 2017, 8-Wisconsin reached the Sweet 16
  • Out of the 39 1-seeds that had 9+ Q1 wins
    • 2 lost in the second round (one of those was to an 8-seed with 9+ Q1 wins)
    • 2 lost in the Sweet 16 (both were to 4-seeds with 9+ Q1 wins)
    • 35 reached the Elite 8
    • 20 reached the Final 4
    • 13 reached the Championship Game
    • 9 won the title
  • 2015 had 12 teams with 9+ Q1 wins – the most in the last 15 years
    • Included all Final Four teams
    • Included seven of the Elite Eight teams.  3-Notre Dame (7 Q1 wins) reached the Elite Eight, emerging from the only section of the bracket lacking a 9+ Q1 win team

9+ Q1-win Teams in 2018

  • North Carolina – 13
  • Kansas – 12
  • Virginia – 12
  • Villanova – 10
  • Florida – 9