Data Dive: Let's Put Some Perspective On UConn Scoring 30 Consecutve Points on Illinois In The Elite-8
Jamie Schwaberow. Getty Images.We have a little time before the Final Four kicks off in Phoenix so I went down a little data dive rabbit hole on UConn's 30 consecutive points vs Illinois. I mean, OK, so what? A team went on a little wittle hot streak in the NCAA Elite-8 and added three measley points on the scoreboard in the tens column before the other team scored a point. Is this really that impressive?
The answer is, of course, yes.
Realize that there's over 360 D1 schools who play some 6,000 plus combined games a season. And I found just two games this season in which a team went on a longer scoring streak than UConn's 30 points. And neither of the victims were DI schools.
Sicco viewing only ahead:
North Dakota State (33 consecutive points vs Oak Hills Christian)
Oh my. Credit the Oaks here for keeping the deficit within one digit for the first five minutes of the game and no more than two digits thereafter. 108-14. I would almost think it mathematically impossible to have a scoring streak less than 33 points with a score so lopsided that the losing team deleted their mascot logo. Of course, this wasn't a fair fight. Oak Hills is a Division II school and while North Dakota State might a bottom barrel D1 school that's pretty much why they have divisions in the first place.
Same idea with the game with the MOST consecutive points scored by a single team in the 2023-24 season.
McNeese (41 consecutive points vs Champion Christian)
If ever a graph could show what happens when your controller dies and you spend ten minutes looking for new batteries because mom keeps moving where to keep them, this is it. Surprisingly, this was actually a basketball game for most of the first half as the Champs were only looking at a 9-13 deficit with 12 minutes remaining.
But neither of these games are really any good of a comp since they both consisted of a DI team beating up a little brother DII. Let's run a pull over the past several years (2017-18 season to current) and find the DI teams who got depants the most in consecutive points scored on.
Here's the full list from biggest streak on down that involves a DI team. And any DI school that was the victim has a "yes" in the "DI Tm Scored On?" column.
FTR - I hand recorded which teams were DI so look to the brilliance of the comment section to make sure I didn't miscode any. But let's record the seasonal offensive scoring ranking for each DI team that got doused with a 30-plus burger. Because that's what is truly mind blowing about all of this.
- Cleveland State (2020): 100
- William & Mary (2020): 136
- Southern Miss (2016): 338
- Longwood (2018): 166
- William & Mary (2020): 345
- Western Illinois (2018): 273 fuck
- South Carolina State (2019): 332
- Rutgers (2017): 246
- Wagner (2016): 321
- Delaware State (2019): 329
- Stony Brook (2017) 254
- Michigan (2016): 58
- UMass (2016): 190
- McNeese (2016): 303
Pretty bad offenses for the most part here with Michigan being the only school to break the top-100 in DI scoring. So where was Illinois at this season?
- Illinois (2024): 2
That's right. Two. As in the second best scoring team in the nation. And they got PANTS. That's the team Alabama is up against this weekend and whoever wins in Purdue/NC State after that. I know anything is possible, but here's the thing. No it fucking isn't. This tournament is over (so long as they are able to get there). UConn is a D0 team playing the best of the lowly D1 wannabees like the sad sack teams on the list above. Especially my alma mater Western Illinois. We suck. We can't even be accidentally good.
It's still going to be fun to watch the Final Four but this baby is over. I predict Andrew Hurley makes two game appearances and continues his unblemished win streak when given 1 second or more playing time.