Re: Look at 2014 again...

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zn

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dzrams

That year, 3 of 4 had top offenses and only 1 with a top defense. The slight difference this year is 4 of 4 had top offenses and only 1 with a top defense.

Yeah I screwed up didn't I.

So my fallback position is this. This year has 4 top offenses. That's an anomaly and certainly not proof that you absolutely need a top 10 offense to be a contender.

In fact of my 16 teams before 2016, 8 had top 10 offenses.

So is having a top 10 offense an unconditional pre-req for going to the final 4? No.

I wouldn't say this year is anomaly anymore than last year being an anomaly on the defensive side. Besides, when on average 3 of 4 teams (last 3 years only) have a top offense, it's not a stretch to get 4 of 4 some years. But how it's described could be a matter of semantics. Not worth a drawn out discussion...

While I agree that having a top 10 offense is not a pre-req, what did surprise me on these numbers is how often the final 4 had top offenses versus top defenses. I assumed it would be more weighted towards the D side.

But...over 5 years, 13 of 20 teams had top offenses which is 65% of the time. Only 9 had top defenses. That's 45%. I didn't expect that type of disparity.