Enough from the sports analysts, arm chair point
guards, loud mouth fanatics, news and entertainment personalities, geeks and
computers, after two or three rounds, the first of many odd math facts attached
to March Madness, we have sixteen teams left.
The bracket says three rounds were played but
reality says we went from 64 to 32 teams (1st round), then 32 to 16 teams (2nd
round). My math says two rounds. We have left 16 to 8 (3rd round), 8 to 4 (4th
round), 4 to 2 (5th round), and the championship (6th round). Since when did a play in by a couple of teams
constitute a tournament round?
Clearly, no one involved in the billion dollar
March Madness money machine worries about details like accuracy, math, or
specifics, just the bottom line. Well
the bottom line started out with Kentucky
the favorite and after two or three rounds, nothing has changed.
The first rounds destroyed the East coast, or
specifically the Northeast, as a perennial powerhouse of teams which seems a
logical shift, but that is part of the analysis to come.
For insights free of the often-hysterical outbursts
by all our specialists, I have channeled Pythagoras, ancient Greek
mathematician, and Aristotle, ancient Greek philosopher, to get their analysis
of what is going on.
First, they offered as background a review of the
definition of "Madness", as used in the made-for-TV phrase March
Madness. Does the term
"Madness" contribute to the branding of the NCAA championship?
Here is their composite definition:
mad·ness
noun
Madness
The definition of madness:
1. insanity, mental illness, dementia, derangement,
lunacy, instability
2. folly, foolishness,
idiocy, stupidity, insanity, lunacy, silliness
3. frenzied or chaotic
activity
The synonyms for various
states of madness:
1. mania, psychosis,
2. craziness
3. bedlam, mayhem, chaos,
pandemonium, craziness, uproar, turmoil, disorder, all hell broken loose,
(three-ring) circus
According to my learned
ancients, it would appear the term indeed describes the state of chaos
resulting from March Madness.
Pythagoras was most interested in the mathematical
puzzles, assumptions, thesis and hypothesis involved in seeding, results,
conferences, and all the other trivia associated with the payoffs. Some of his observations included conference
power rating, note the numbers represent the conference standings of the
tournament teams, not the NCAA seedings.
So far through the first two or three rounds here
are conference results.
Conference champion (1) Virginia lost
(2) Duke, (3) Notre Dame, (4)
Louisville , (5) North
Carolina , (7) North
Carolina State
won
Pac 12
One team lost
(1) Arizona ,
(2) Utah , and
(4) UCLA won
Big East
Top five teams lost
Only (6) Xavier remains
Big Ten
Five teams lost
(1) Wisconsin and (3) Michigan State remain
Big 12
Five teams lost
(3) Oklahoma
and (4) West Virginia
remain
SEC
Four teams lost
(1) Kentucky remains
One team lost
(1) Wichita State
won
West Coast
One team lost
(1) Gonzaga remains
Pythagoras is also curious about the relationship
between tournament seedings, and actual results to date, so here are the stats.
Seeds Surviving
1. three
teams Kentucky ,
Wisconsin ,
Duke
2. two
teams Arizona , Gonzaga
3. two
teams Notre Dame, Oklahoma
4. two
teams North
Carolina , Louisville
5. two
teams West
Virginia , Utah
6. one
team Xavier
7. two
teams Wichita State , Michigan
State
8. one
team North Carolina State
11. one team UCLA
Other Pythagorean factoids to bear in mind:
No team whose name began with a "V"
survived the opening rounds, four teams lost.
Three teams whose name began with a "N"
and three whose name began with a "W" made the Sweet Sixteen, along
with two whose name began with "U".
Roughly speaking, the geographic distribution of
teams is:
Northeast - 1
Southeast - 3
West - 4
Of those from the Midwest, six were east of the
Mississippi River, and two were west of the Mississippi
River .
As far as mascots, which interested Aristotle, here
are the teams, seeding and mascots. As
you can see, there are two Wildcats, Kentucky
and Arizona ,
and little else in common among the schools.
Aristotle seemed most interested in the Spartans of Michigan State.
1 Kentucky Wildcats
1 Duke Blue Devils
1 Wisconsin Badgers
2 Arizona Wildcats
2 Gonzaga Bulldogs
('Zags)
3 Notre Dame Fighting
Irish
3 Oklahoma Sooners
4 Louisville Cardinals
4 North Carolina Tar Heels
5 Utah Utes
5 West Virginia Mountaineers
6 Xavier
Muskeeters
7 Michigan State Spartans
7 Wichita State
Shockers
8 NC State
Wolfpack
11 UCLA Bruins
Of course one stat that is
not in the formula is the fan intensity and the cheerleader impact and we can
thank the lowest seeded team for bringing along the highest rated cheerleaders
to the tourney, eleven seeded UCLA.
So what do my friends Pythagoras & Aristotle think of this unique American past
time?
Stay tuned.
.
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