Average # of Top 100 Players on Final Four Teams

[hawkwing]

I've compiled a small dataset of those getting minutes in Final Four games and their recruiting rankings based on ESPN rating.

I've only looked at 2016 and 2015 Final Four games so far, but the data is interesting.

As you can see, for the last 2 years, Final Four teams have averaged about 6 Top 100 players per team, but they of those 6 top 100 players, 3-4 of them have been top 50, 2-3 have been top 25, and 1 per team has been top 10.

[snoscythe]

There's the first half of your dataset.

Now for the second half: How many have 6+ but don't make the Final Four?

[hawkwing]

There's the first half of your dataset.

Now for the second half: How many have 6+ but don't make the Final Four?

That will be very interesting data when you calculate it.

[snoscythe]

There's the first half of your dataset.

Now for the second half: How many have 6+ but don't make the Final Four?

That will be very interesting data when you calculate it.

It would be easy for someone else to do. Just chart the last 6 classes of top-100 player-by-player, chart out which of the last two seasons they actually played on their teams, and see how many teams had 6+ in a season, and subtract the five teams you already identified. Easy peasy, for someone else, of course.

[hawkwing]

One issue I ran into while reviewing ESPN's recruiting database is that it isn't actually tied to the player profile for the college kid, so some top 100 kids committed to a particular school but ended up playing the majority of their years on a different team than the team they signed with in the recruiting database and there's no way to tell that from the recruiting database, so there are some caveats.

[craigoscarson]

the other thing would be how many of these players are freshman vs seniors... this is what plays into our hands in the future that none of them are quite good enough to jump to the NBA so good chance they all stick around til they're seniors (this is how Duke built their program in the 80s was with guys that stuck around). I've been told that right now the most NBA ready player would actually be Elijah Bryant... but I think we all know that Eric Mika is the guy that could leave early (however his family is very wealthy (very) so he doesn't need to leave).

[BlueK]

There's the first half of your dataset.

Now for the second half: How many have 6+ but don't make the Final Four?

I would bet that since even some final four teams don't have that many top 100 players that it's pretty small number of D1 teams in general that have that many on the same team.