If you’re clinging to “just get in the tournament and anything can happen,” history is not exactly on your side.
Since 2004, every national champion has shared one simple trait: at Week 6 in the AP Poll, they were sitting inside the top 12. Not just “ranked.” Not just “in the conversation.” Top 12.
Kentucky? The Wildcats were No. 18 heading into the Gonzaga disaster, then got run out of Nashville 94–59 in front of a pro-Kentucky crowd and find themselves unranked…