Everyone knew Sunday’s instant classic between Kentucky and North Carolina was a battle of college basketball bluebloods.
We just didn’t know it featured the best programs of all-time.
That distinction came Wednesday courtesy of the Associated Press, which revealed its list of all-time Top 100 teams, with Kentucky and UNC coming in at Nos. 1 and 2, respectively.
Usual suspects Duke (No. 3), UCLA (4) and Kansas (5) round out the top-five, followed by Indiana, Louisville, Arizona, Syracuse and Cincinnati.
The AP counted poll appearances since the organization’s first poll in January of 1949, giving one point per appearance and two points per each No. 1 ranking. Of note: There is no postseason AP poll, so national titles didn’t factor into these rankings.
The Wildcats (1,111 points), Tar Heels (1,098) and Blue Devils (1,032) were the only programs to crack the 1000-point plateau.
The poll reflects the storyline surrounding this weekend’s Final Four as well, considering three of the tournament’s remaining participants fail to crack the all-time top 40 — Gonzaga (41), South Carolina (62) and Oregon (66).
When taking into account such large bodies of work, it is also always fun to see who else cracks this list, such as powers of decades past like San Francisco (48) or Loyola Chicago (98).
Also of note: Every ACC and SEC school made the list. (The ACC can probably also lay partial claim to No. 17 Maryland, too, considering most of the Terrapins’ history came in that league.
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