Statistician Nate Silver researched the tourney fates of teams playing close to home and found that since 2003 teams playing an NCAA tournament game within 50 miles of their campus are a remarkable 24-2.

One of the two losses came in last year’s championship game, when Butler — playing just miles from its campus in Indianapolis — came within 2 points of defeating a heavily favored Duke team.

By contrast, teams travelling at least 1,000 miles to play their game are 121-174, having won just 41 percent of the time.

Another way to look at these numbers: the team playing closer to home has won 59 percent of tournament games since 2003.