The countdown clock for March Madness is getting closer and closer to zero. How will you build your bracket?
Analyzing March Madness Historical Data
I was chatting with Hoosier BI last week about Power BI, data and March Madness. It's taking place entirely in Indiana this year and I got inspired to take an interest. I found some data on Washington Post Sports App and ESPN that I have combined to analyze historical wins, records and upsets across the entire March Madness tournament.
Just a few notable figures:
- Teams seeded 1, 2 or 3 are significantly more likely to make it to the National Championship game, with no one below seed 8 ever making it to the National Championship. Also notable; although Seed 5 has made it to the National Championship game 3 times, they have never won.
- The Final Four will usually have one or two, but not all, of the No 1 seeds. All four number 1 seeds have made the Final Four only once (in 2008) while 2006 and 2011 saw none of the number 1 seeds in the Final Four!
- The last upset in the National Championship game was in 2016 when Villanova beat North Carolina 77-74. There have only been 7 upsets in the 35 National Championship games since 1985.
- UConn has made it to the the National Championship 4 times and won every time (tied for second most wins with North Carolina).
- There's a 54% chance that at least 1 number 10 seed will make the Sweet 16, but only a 9% chance that 2 or more number 10 seeds will make Sweet 16.
Below is a preview of the report. Click the icon on bottom right to view it in full screen. Click around and see what insights and analytics you can discover to help you make the best March Madness bracket. More info on how it was built coming soon in future blog posts.
