I believe there are restrictions on how often you can play in certain tournaments, like Maui for instance.
We might’ve been in it before we knew the other teams. Or when we signed up we knew who the other teams were, but did not know GW, Providence, and USC would be bad.
It seems like we alternate between a major tourney and one like this every year too.
2018:
Best team on KenPom: Purdue (5)
Regular season champ: Michigan State
Tournament champ: Michigan
2017:
Best team on KenPom: Purdue (19)
Regular season champ: Purdue
Tournament champ: Michigan
2016:
Best team on KenPom: Michigan State (5)
Regular season champ: Indiana
Tournament champ: Michigan State
2015:
Best team on KenPom: Wisconsin (2)
Regular season champ: Wisconsin
Tournament champ: Wisconsin
2014:
Best team on KenPom: Wisconsin (5)
Regular season champ: Michigan
Tournament champ: Michigan State
2013:
Best team on KenPom: Indiana (3)
Regular season champ: Indiana
Tournament champ: Ohio State
2012:
Best team on KenPom: Ohio State (2)
Regular season champ: Michigan State, Michigan, Ohio State (tie)
Tournament champ: Michigan State
2011:
Best team on KenPom: Ohio State (1)
Regular season champ: Ohio State
Tournament champ: Ohio State
2010:
Best team on KenPom: Ohio State (7)
Regular season champ: Michigan State, Ohio State, Purdue (tie)
Tournament champ: Ohio State
2009:
Best team on KenPom: Michigan State (9)
Regular season champ: Michigan State
Tournament champ: Purdue
7 of 10 times the best KenPom team won at least a share of the conference regular season title. 4 of 10 times that team won the conference tournament.
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Nice! So I guess that ends the regular season vs. tourney champ debate??
Nice research buckets. The NCAA tourney is a bit of a crapshoot, but I wonder who did better there, the regular season or B1G tournament champ. Overall, I think the regular season title is more impressive and shows more of a “better year” – and thus the better kenpom number is not surprising – but the tourney champ, while again a one-and-done format, may do as well or better indicating who is playing better at the end of the year.
Assuming that you’re using the final KenPom ranking, it’s worth remembering that the results of the tournament games contribute to it. That is, the teams that do well in the B1G and NCAA tournaments will see their rankings rise from whatever they were at the end of the conference regular season.
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Yeah I used the final ones. I wonder if there’s a way to look at end of regular season numbers still. I had the same thought while compiling them, but I was surprised by a few teams rankings based on where they finished:
2018 Purdue lost in sweet 16
2016 MSU lost first round
2013 Indiana lost in sweet 16
2011 Ohio State lost in sweet 16
All those teams finished top 5 nationally in KenPom despite no major run. I was very surprised 2018 Purdue and 2013 Indiana finished ahead of Michigan those years (despite no conference tournament championship and losing 3 rounds before Michigan did in NCAAs). Maybe this year will be JB’s first KenPom conference championship
Each team’s page has their ranking through every game next to the game.
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Going back to 2011, at least. There’s no way I know of to see the rankings of all the teams in the conference on a given day, though; you have to go through each team’s page.