NCAA Basketball: Best programs without an NCAA Tournament win since 2000

Plenty of NCAA basketball programs have racked up wins during the NCAA Tournament since the turn of the century, but what about those who haven’t?

Since 2011, the NCAA Tournament has yearly featured 68 teams competing in single elimination to become the champions. Because of the Bracket, there’s going to be at least 32 teams in every Tourney who fail to win a single game. Most of these teams are low major qualifiers or upset power conference schools. There are some upsets that we never really forget: UMBC over Virginia, Mercer and Lehigh over Duke, or Florida Gulf Coast’s run to the Sweet Sixteen. However, one thing we don’t pay attention to are the teams that regularly put themselves in a great position but can’t pull off a single victory.

When breaking down some recent Tournaments, it’s interesting how many different teams have managed to win at least one game since the turn of the century. Only the most die-hard of fans remember Hampton, Siena, Cornell, La Salle, Milwaukee, Southern Illinois, and many other mid-major teams who have broken through during March Madness. But for every one of these upset-makers there’s at least one potent program that hasn’t broken through.

This article will provide insight and analysis on the ten best programs that have not won a single NCAA Tournament game since the turn of the century. The primary source of the ranking was average KenPom efficiency ratings of the last 19 seasons. The rankings included in the following pages are only rankings of teams who have not won tournament games. Other things will be considered (like actual appearances in the NCAA Tournament), but KenPom gives a nice overall picture of a team’s season.