By Harry King
LITTLE ROCK — Despite what happened Saturday in Knoxville and Stillwater, the favorites to win the NCAA basketball championship remain, in alphabetical order, Kansas and Kentucky.
Syracuse, the Big East leader, is atop the polls because somebody has to be No. 1. The Orangemen moved up when the Jayhawks lost to Oklahoma State and the Wildcats fell to Tennessee. It is noteworthy that Kansas received seven of the 31 first-place votes in the coaches poll despite losing at OSU.
Whether the explanation is the wear and tear of conference road games, the bullseye of a long winning streak, or just one of those nights, losing in late February or early March is the norm for the eventual national champion.
Arkansas’ national championship team finished the 1994 season with 12 victories in a row and then beat Georgia in the first round of the SEC Tournament. The next day, Kentucky defeated the Razorbacks by 12 and some fans worried that the loss would cost Arkansas a No. 1 seed. The NCAA paid no mind to the L. In retrospect, the loss enabled the Razorbacks to return to Fayetteville a day early and dimmed the spotlight on them.
During the past decade, every national champion has entered the NCAA Tournament with at least two losses, some with a few more.
The last team to begin the tournament unbeaten was UNLV, with a 30-0 record that included 101-93 over Arkansas in Fayetteville on Dec. 30, 1989. The Running Rebels lost to eventual champion Duke in the NCAA semifinals.
In 2004, both Saint Joseph’s and Stanford were once-beaten but neither reached the final Four. A one-loss Illinois lost the 2005 title game, same as one-loss Memphis in 2008.
Late-season losses by NCAA champions of this decade:
1999-2000: Michigan State lost its seventh game of the year before ending the season with a five-game winning streak.
2000-01: Duke lost the fourth time that season on Feb. 27 at home in the next-to-last game of the regular season. The Blue Devils won the ACC Tournament and rolled in the NCAA.
2001-2002: Maryland was 23-3 when its 11-game winning streak ended against North Carolina State in round two of the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament.
2002-03: Syracuse’s eight-game winning streak ended in the second round of the Big East Tournament when the Orangemen lost their fifth game of the season, 80-67 to UConn.
2003-04: UConn’s five-game winning streak came to a halt against Syracuse on the final weekend of the regular season.
2004-05: North Carolina’s eight-game winning streak was stopped by Georgia Tech in the second round of the ACC tournament.
2005-06: Florida lost to Arkansas on Feb. 18, then to Tennessee and Alabama, and was 22-6. The Gators won in Lexington, beat Arkansas 74-71 in the first round of the SEC Tournament and never looked back.
2006-07: Florida followed much the same path as the previous year, losing three of four in late February. The Gators finished the regular season with a victory over Kentucky and beat Arkansas by 21 in the finals of the SEC Tournament.
2007-08: Kansas lost twice during a 12-day period in February, then won four straight and the Big 12 Tournament.
2008-09: North Carolina suffered its fourth loss of the season in late February, losing to Maryland after winning 10 straight.
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Harry King is sports columnist for Stephens Media’s Arkansas News Bureau. His e-mail address is hking@arkansasnews.com.
