Actually in referencing UT's win totals the last three years you said "19, 20, and 24 wins" but if you are only counting the regular season we had 18, 19, and 20 wins respectively the last three years. An average of 19 wins in the regular season. The 20 this season is fudging it a bit too, due to Tusculum.
In RPI rankings, we finished the regular season at 19-11 and finished the SEC tournament at 20-12. ESPN's RPI that you are using includes the post season conference tournament records but doesn't include games against Div II opponents, thus the difference in 20 win team totals from other sources. 112 teams finished the regular season with 20 wins if you include games against Div II teams.
Personally, I include the entire season to date.
I'll roll out some 20 game winners that to me, are average teams.
Illinois - 20-15
Georgia - 20-14
LSU - 20-14
St John's - 20-13
Utah - 21-12
UTEP - 23-11
Teams like those that weren't even within sniffing distance of the NCAA tournament late this season. They were sitting at or near 20 wins at the end of conference tournaments and weren't even in the next four out, let alone the first 4 out.
Now one can be technical and take the number of games played among all teams, the number of wins and do the math to get the average win total in all of basketball. But that's not what I'm referring to by average team.
