The West Coast curse that should worry reaming teams in the Sweet 16
The Arizona Wildcats were the last team to make the Sweet 16, but if they are going to win it all they’ll have to break long standing West Coast curse.
We momentarily take a break from the Madness as the remaining teams prepare for their Sweet 16 matchups coming up on Thursday and Friday. Four wins separates the 16 schools from title glory, but history would suggest that teams on the western half of the country could be in big trouble.
Dominance in the East
It has been a rough couple of decades for basketball fans and universities in the western half of the country. If you split the United States in half from the lowest peak of Texas and draw a straight line all the way up to the top of North Dakota, that basically splits the country almost perfectly in half.
Since before the turning of the century, no team west of that line has won the NCAA Tournament. The University of Arizona was the last team to win it all west of that line. That was all the way back in 1997. Since then only teams located east of that line have won the NCAA Tournament.
Since 1997, twelve different teams have won the Big Dance. UCONN lead all teams with six titles in that time including the last two National Championships. Duke and North Carolina have both one it three times each in that span, and Florida, Kansas, Kentucky and Villanova have won it twice. Syracuse, Louisville, Baylor, Virginia and Michgan State each lifted the title once since the late 90s, and the 2020 tournament was cancelled due to COVID.
These are the year-by-year winners since 1997
- 1998 Kentucky
- 1999 UCONN
- 2000 Michigan State
- 2001 Duke
- 2002 Maryland
- 2003 Syracuse
- 2004 UCONN
- 2005 North Carolina
- 2006 Florida
- 2007 Florida
- 2008 Kansas
- 2009 North Carolina
- 2010 Duke
- 2011 UCONN
- 2012 Kentucky
- 2013 Louisville
- 2014 UCONN
- 2015 Duke
- 2016 Villanova
- 2017 North Carolina
- 2018 Villanova
- 2019 Virginia
- 2020 Cancelled due to COVID
- 2021 Baylor
- 2022 Kansas
- 2023 UCONN
- 2024 UCONN
It’s up to Arizona or BYU
Baylor University from Waco, Texas is the last western most team to win the title since 1997. They beat the Gonzaga Bulldogs from Spokane, Washington that year. Kansas, who have won it twice are just a little farther east than the line down at the bottom of Texas stretching up to the top of the United States.
The Arizona Wildcats were the last team to make it to the Sweet 16, beating the Oregon Ducks in Sunday’s final game of the Round of 32. That’s fitting because they were the last team to win it from the “west.” Now they have a chance to break the drought.
The odds are once again stacked against the teams west of that line in the middle of the US. Of the 16 schools remaining, there are four previous winners from after 1997, Duke, Kentucky, Michigan State and Florida. Ten of the other schools are east of that line. Only Arizona and BYU have a chance to break the curse and return the NCAA title back to the western part of the country.
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