There is always talk about college basketball team’s getting hot at the “right time.” That time, of course, is March. When all the madness begins, you want to be playing the best basketball of your season.
Wisconsin was playing their best ball and then some when the season abruptly came to. a halt. The Badgers were entering the Big Ten Tournament as winners of eight straight, and newly crowned Big Ten regular season champions. Nearly every member of the eight-man rotation was playing their best basketball of the season. The fact that UW could not lose if they tried throughout the months of February and March gave fans serious hope about a deep tournament run.
In the last five years of NCAA Champions, the trend actually looks similar in terms of February and March success. The only team that won their conference tournament championship and the NCAA Tournament was 2017-18 Villanova. The four other champions lost in their conference tournament, with three teams not even making their conference tournament championship game. The 2017-18 Villanova team lost three games in February, which was a rocky month for their lofty standards. There has been no team over the last five years that has had an exceptional February, went on to win their conference tournament, and then run the table in March Madness.
The best recipe seems to be a team having an exceptional February, as last year’s Virginia squad did, but then losing in their conference tournament. This is obviously a small sample size, but four of the past five champions have had exceptional months of February, and then lost in their conference tournament, heading into March.
The Badgers were primed to follow that pattern. Recent history was on their side in terms of February success translating into the NCAA Tournament.