The last three teams in the conference rankings, St. Bonaventure, Fordham, and Duquesne, do significantly weight this conference down. Every other team besides these three has at least one tournament victory and at least four tournament appearances since 1985.
Top 50 Teams:
15) Indiana Hoosiers – Total Points: 587
- 1 NCAA Championship, 1 Championship Game Appearance, 1 Final Four Appearances, 1 Elite Eight Appearance, 3 Sweet Sixteen Appearances, 3 Missed Tournaments
- ESPN Rank: 13
Indiana grabs the final spot in the top 15 with their incredible consistency. They have only three missed tournaments, meaning they have played in the NCAA tournament 21 of the last 24 seasons. This is the least missed tournaments of any team outside the top five in the rankings.
Indiana also has some very good tournament success to speak of. They won the National Championship as a No. 1 seed in 1987. Led by the coaching of Bobby Knight, they won the championship game over No. 2-seeded Syracuse by one point.
The Hoosiers also reached the finals of the NCAA tournament in 2002 as a No. 5 seed. They lost to No. 1-seeded Maryland. Indiana’s only other Final Four in the past 24 seasons came in 1992 as a No. 2 seed, where they lost to No. 1-seeded and eventual champion Duke.
The main negative for Indiana is that they have nine first round losses. Also, their 2002 finals appearance was the only time they have advanced past the second round of the tournament since 1994.
14) Maryland Terrapins – Total Points: 601
- 1 NCAA Championship, 1 Final Four Appearance, 6 Sweet Sixteen Appearances, 9 Missed Tournaments
- ESPN Rank: 28
Although they have a relatively high number of missed tournaments, Maryland is high in the rankings because of their good finishes, including only losing in the first round twice.
Their two first round losses came in back-to-back seasons, in 1996 and 1997. They lost to No. 10-seeded Santa Clara in 1996 as a No. 7 seed and to No. 12-seeded College of Charleston as a No. 5 seed in 1997.
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