Here's where Baylor ranks among the greatest men's basketball national champions ever

Entering the national championship game in the 2021 NCAA tournament, Gonzaga had the chance to etch its name in men's college basketball lore, as it pursued an undefeated, 32-0 season that culminated in a national championship. Baylor, however, had other plans. The Bears finished their 2021 campaign with a 28-2 record, which was their fewest losses ever in a season and tied for the second-most wins.

While they didn't go undefeated, they have the resume and the record to stack up very favorably with some of the very best national champions of the past. Here's how Baylor compares to past national champions.

Simple Rating System (SRS)

While many popular advanced metrics, such as those on kenpom.com and barttorvik.com, didn't exist when many national champions were crowned, Sports Reference's Simple Rating System, which "takes into account average point differential and strength of schedule" dates back more than 70 years.

Sports Reference has the SRS rating for every men's basketball national champion starting in the 1950 season.

1. UCLA (1972): 33.79
2. UCLA (1968): 32.56
3. Duke (2001): 32.18
4. Kentucky (1996): 32.14
5. UCLA (1967): 29.39
6. North Carolina (1993): 29.04
7. North Carolina (2005): 28.42
8. UCLA (1973): 27.98
9. Michigan (1989): 27.63
10. Kansas (2008): 26.89
11. UCLA (1969): 26.69
12. Villanova (2018): 26.64
13. Indiana (1976): 26.53
14. Ohio State (1960): 25.88
15. Virginia (2019): 25.46
16. North Carolina (2009): 25.45
17. Duke (2010): 25.21
18. NC State (1974): 25.05
19. Michigan State (2000): 25.04
20. UCLA (1970): 25.02
21. Duke (2015): 24.97
22. Duke (1991): 24.90
23. North Carolina (2017): 24.84
24. Baylor (2021): 24.83
25. Louisville (2013)*: 24.81
26. UConn (1999): 24.74
27. Kentucky (2012): 24.73
28. Duke (1992): 24.68
29. UNLV (1990): 24.45
30. Villanova (2016): 24.08
31. Arkansas (1994): 23.88
32. Florida (2007): 23.82
33. UCLA (1995): 23.74
34. Maryland (2002): 23.50
35. Kentucky (1998): 22.95
36. Cincinnati (1962): 22.85
37. UConn (2004): 22.64
38. Michigan State (1979): 22.53
39. UCLA (1964): 22.51
40. Kentucky (1951): 22.24
41. Arizona (1997): 21.60
42. Loyola Chicago (1963): 21.43
43. UCLA (1965): 21.33
44. Indiana (1981): 21.18
45. Kentucky (1978): 21.11
46. UCLA (1975): 21.07
47. San Francisco (1955): 21.00
48. UCLA (1971): 20.91
49. Indiana (1987): 20.69
50. Louisville (1986): 20.64
51. Florida (2006): 20.21
52. North Carolina (1982): 20.17
53. Indiana (1953): 19.98
54. Syracuse (2003): 19.02
55. Cincinnati (1961): 18.80
56. Georgetown (1984): 18.75
57. San Francisco (1956): 18.03
58. UConn (2011): 17.95
59. UConn (2014): 17.23
60. Marquette (1977): 16.67
61. Kentucky (1958): 15.95
62. Kansas (1952): 15.83
63. Kansas (1988): 15.71
64. Louisville (1980): 15.57
65. NC State (1983): 15.22
66. California (1959): 14.77
67. CCNY (1950): 14.67
68. La Salle (1954): 14.72
69. North Carolina (1957): 14.70
70. UTEP (1966): 13.86
71. Villanova (1985): 12.03
    *Louisville's championship was later vacated by the Committee on Infractions

KenPom

One of the most popular men's basketball advanced analytics websites is Ken Pomeroy's website kenpom.com, which provides tempo-free efficiency numbers that adjust for the quality of opponent and the pace of play. Pomeroy offers adjusted efficiency margin statistics, which indicate how many points a team would be expected to outscore an average opponent on a neutral floor per 100 possessions. For reference, there were roughly 68 possessions per game this season, according to KenPom, so multiply a team's adjusted efficiency margin by 0.68 and you'll get its expected margin of victory against an average opponent on a neutral floor.

Pomeroy's database dates back to the 2001-02 season:

1. Kansas (2008): +35.21
2. Virginia (2019): +34.22
3. Baylor (2021): +33.87
4. Villanova (2018): +33.76
5. Duke (2010): +33.29
6. Louisville (2013)*: +32.92
7. North Carolina (2005): +32.77
8. Kentucky (2012): +32.59
9. Duke (2015): +32.48
10. Villanova (2016): +32.01
11. North Carolina (2009): +31.14
12. Florida (2007): +30.81
13. Maryland (2002): +29.25
14. UConn (2004): +28.30
15. Florida (2006): +28.28
16. North Carolina (2017): +28.22
17. UConn (2011): +23.93
18. Syracuse (2003): +23.28
19. UConn (2014): +22.13
    *Louisville's championship was later vacated by the Committee on Infractions

Total margin of victory in the NCAA tournament

Below are the combined margins of victory for every national champion since the NCAA tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985:

• Kentucky (1996): 129 points
• Villanova (2016): 124 points
• North Carolina (2009): 121 points
• UNLV (1990): 112 points
• Villanova (2018): 106 points
• Duke (2001): 100 points
• Louisville (2013)*: 97 points
• Florida (2006): 96 points
• North Carolina (1993): 94 points
• Duke (2015): 93 points
• Michigan State (2000), Baylor (2021): 92 points
• Duke (2010): 87 points
• UCLA (1995): 86 points
• Florida (2007), Kansas (2008): 85 points
• Duke (1991), Maryland (2002): 84 points
• North Carolina (2005): 83 points
• Kentucky (1998), UConn (2004): 80 points
• Duke (1992): 75 points
• Louisville (1986), UConn (1999), Kentucky (2012): 71 points
• Arkansas (1994), North Carolina (2017): 67 points
• Indiana (1987): 63 points
• UConn (2011): 62 points
• Michigan (1989): 59 points
• Syracuse (2003): 54 points
• Kansas (1988): 53 points
• UConn (2014): 47 points
• Virginia (2019): 45 points
• Arizona (1997): 32 points
• Villanova (1985): 30 points
  *Louisville's championship was later vacated by the Committee on Infractions

Winning percentage

While admittedly simplistic, win percentage is a basic way to measure just how good a team was in a given season. If Gonzaga had beaten Baylor to finish as a 32-0, undefeated national champion, then that would've meant something. So perhaps we can establish takeaways from Baylor's 28-2 record (.933) and how that compares to past national champions.

T1. San Francisco (1956), North Carolina (1957), UCLA (1964), UCLA (1967), UCLA (1972), UCLA (1973), Indiana (1976): 1.000
8. NC State (1974): .968
T9. UCLA (1968), UCLA (1969), UCLA (1971): .967
T12. San Francisco (1955), UTEP (1966): .966
14. Kentucky (2012): .950
T15. Duke (1992), Kentucky (1996), UConn (1999): .944
T18. Kentucky (1949), Kentucky (1951), North Carolina (1982): .941
T21. Wyoming (1943), Oklahoma State (1946), UCLA (1995): .939
24. Kentucky (1978): .938
T25. Cincinnati (1962), Loyola Chicago (1963): .935
T27. UCLA (1965), UCLA (1970), Baylor (2021): .933
30. Kansas (2008): .925
31. Kentucky (1948): .923
32. Virginia (2019): .921
33. Georgetown (1984): .919
34. Louisville (1980): .917
35. Arkansas (1994): .912
T36. Kansas (1952), UCLA (1975): .903
T38. Holy Cross (1947), Cincinnati (1961), Villanova (2018): .900
T41. Kentucky (1998), Duke (2001), Duke (2015): .897
T44. North Carolina (1993), North Carolina (2009): .895
46. Ohio State (1960): .893
47. North Carolina (2005): .892
48. Maryland (2002): .889
49. Indiana (1953): .885
50. Indiana (1987): .882
T51. Stanford (1942), UNLV (1990), Florida (2007), Duke (2010), Louisville (2013)*, Villanova (2016): .875
57. Oklahoma State (1945): .871
T58. Indiana (1940), Wisconsin (1941): .870
60. La Salle (1954): .867
61. California (1959): .862
62. Syracuse (2003): .857
63. Oregon (1939): .853
T64. Utah (1944), UConn (2004), Florida (2006): .846
67. CCNY (1950): .828
68. North Carolina (2017): .825
T69. Louisville (1986), Duke (1991), Michigan State (2000): .821
72. Michigan State (1979): .813
73. Michigan (1989): .811
74. UConn (2014): .800
75. Kentucky (1958): .793
76. Marquette  (1977): .781
77. UConn (2011): .780
78. Indiana (1981): .743
79. Arizona (1997): .735
80. NC State (1983): .722
81. Villanova (1985): .714
82. Kansas (1988): .711
*Louisville's championship was later vacated by the Committee on Infractions

 

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