@dylans Good pickup. Here is the answer, because they have never advanced two rounds. The early 70’s were before the tournament expanded, so never to the sweet 16 since then.
In 1971, they started in the sweet 16, and lost, then lost the regional consolation game, too. In each of the next 2 years, they won in the first round (round of 25), lost in the second round (sweet 16), and then won the 3rd place regional consolation games.
Those consolation games sucked for everyone, guaranteeing some team two losses to end their year (as well as distorting overall NCAA stats). They got rid of the regional ones in the mid-70s, I think, but they kept them until the early 80s for the F4. (If you recall, Walton didn’t want to play in the nat’l consolation game against KU but came off the bench to help stomp us in 1974.)
