If Yahoo search trends determined the winner of the Final Four, the company says, VCU would beat Kentucky in the title game. Talk like that might lose Yahoo some users around these parts. That would mean the University of Kentucky was able to get to the championship though, so it might slide.

VCU is the top-searched team in the Final Four with searches for “VCU basketball” up 143% this week, Yahoo says. Kentucky is the second-most-searched team, followed by Butler and then UConn.

I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest a good portion of the people searching for VCU are people that have no idea who VCU is, and are therefore looking to find out.

@YahooSearchData
Yahoo! Search DataFinal Four Search Trends from Yahoo!: http://www.ysearchblog.com/2011/03/30/yahoo-search-trends-final-four/ 7 minutes ago via HootSuite · powered by @socialditto

The top coach searches are as follows:

1. Shaka Smart, VCU (searches up 2,199% this week)
2. Brad Stevens, Butler (searches up 416% this week)
3. John Calipari, Kentucky (searches up 252% this week)
4. Jim Calhoun, UConn

“VCU coach Shaka Smart has caught the country’s attention,” Yahoo says. “People seem most interested in his bio, wedding and ethnicity with searches for those things spiking off the charts on Yahoo!”

Some other nuggests from the search trends:

–  As Butler appears in the Final Four for its second straight year, there are 119% more searches this week for “Butler basketball” than there were during the same week last year.

– Searches for “unthinkable Final Four” and “lowest seed to make Final Four” are spiking off the charts this week, Yahoo says.

– Fewer people are searching for Final Four tickets. Searches this week for “Final Four tickets” on Yahoo! are 42% lower compared to searches last year,  and 94% lower compared to searches in 2009.

UConn’s Kemba Walker is the most-searched player in the Final Four – 2.4 times higher than searches for Kentucky’s Brandon Knight, 6.4 times higher than searches for Butler’s Matt Howard and 13.6 times higher than searches for VCU’s Jamie Skeen.