MARCH STATNESS: 64 Stats On 64 NCAA Men's Basketball March Madness Teams (Part 1/4: South Region)
Michael Hickey. Getty Images.Alright March Madness casuals. The idea here is pretty simple. 64 stats to cover all 64 tournament teams, which means one stat per team. Consider that a bonus stat at no charge. I can't guarantee any of these will be helpful to you in filling out your bracket, but some might give you enough to act as a tie breaker.
Lots to get to, so let's get started. Today we visit the South Region.
#1 Auburn has made just one Final Four game in school history
The 2019 loss to Virginia was the lone game but now they come in as a force to be reconned with. The only other time Auburn was a 1-seed was in 1999 when they lost to Ohio State in the Sweet 16.
# 16 ALTST/SFU
One of these teams will play two games in the tournament.
#8 Louisville has the best free throw shooter
Reyne Smith is the best free throw shooter of any team in the tournament this year at 94.2% going 49/52 from the line. This is a huge bonus for any team at the end of the game. Meanwhile, they have a guy named Frank Anselem who has attempted the fewest free throws of any player in the nation that played at least 20 games. Frank must know to give the ball to Reyne when trouble's brewing.
#9 Creighton is a model Jesuit University
Creighton will do anything for a dub. But it won't foul. 10.8 fouls per game is dead last for any team not just in the tournament, but in the nation. They also have a guy named Steve Ashworth who leads in turnovers for any relevant team (109). So not only will they not commit acts against other teams, they will be charitable towards them. I'm just not sure that's what we're looking for in the tournament so I think I'm going Louisville.
The next two make it look like the selection committee is scripting out a UC San Diego over Michigan upset.
#5 Michigan is giving up the most turnovers per game of any team in the tournament (13.8)
#12 UC San Diego leads all major teams in getting 15.3 turnovers a game
It's almost like they're baiting us to pick UC San Diego here. But if you want some "pick a 12 to upset a 5" stats UC San Diego is on 15-game winning streak and have the guy who averages the most free throw attempts per game in the nation (Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones).
Unrelated. For some reason "Camp Anawanna" from Salute Your Shorts just popped into my head.
But then again UC San Diego has pretty much played no one. Utah State was their best opponent hanging out in the mid 30's NET ranking so this might actually be the rare trap upset game. Even so, I'm going UC San Diego. Can't be a trap upset game if you don't fall in the trap. I'll hope for the best and rep Torrey Pines - one of my favorite spots to hike.
#4 Texas A&M has never lost a NCAA Tournament game vs a team four seeds below them
5-0 in holding off any upsets in tournament history is all I need to hear to pick them over the #13 Yale Bulldogs.
#13 Yale has won 16 of their last 17 games
Little fine print: all but one of these games were against a fellow Ivy league school. Give me A&M.
#6 Ole Miss is 14-1 when not playing a Quad 1 opponent
That makes them 8-10 vs quad 1. But I think they can take down the play-in option between UNC and San Diego State.
#11 UNC has won 110 NCAA tournament games - most of any school
I'm just sticking with UNC here and not San Diego State, but I made this decision myself after asking UNC's AD Bubba Cunningham to leave the room for discussion. I know a lot of people think they shouldn't be in the tournament, but when you're the school that won the most tournament games in history, you get those calls. Plus this leaked footage of Bubba waiting in the other room proves he had no input on the decision whatsoever.
By the way, I watched the whole charade of that explanation and recall them saying "player availability" was a factor in determining which schools got it and how they're seeded. I think they should have used that as a reason to kick Duke out of the tournament since Flagg is hurt. I know it makes zero sense. But it's just my fan fiction. I want to hear them say once again that Bubba Cunningham removed himself from that conversation too.
#3 Iowa State shot 1/17 from three point range in a game this season
They did not win that game. The good news though is they get to play Lipscomb.
#14 Lipscomb beat absolutely nobody
Honestly, who named this school? Austin Powers? It's been seven years since Lipscomb made their first tournament bid to have the right to get demolished by UNC and it seems pretty much a sure thing they'll get dusted in round one this year too. The two best teams they played this season were Kentucky and Arkansas. No one else they played were even ranked in the top-115 by NET. Kentucky whomped them 97-68 and Arkansas 76-60. I'll take the team that went 1/17 from threes in a game, please.
#7 Marquette has one of just three players in the tournament with letters in his name that can spell "madness"
Damarius Owens. This concludes my research on Marquette. Not a marquee stat, but you can use Marquette to spell marquee too.
Let's check out who they'll be facing:
#10 New Mexico has the second best rebounder in the nation
Nelly Junior Joseph is bringing home 11.2 rebounds a game. Second only to Northern Arizona's Carson Towt's 12.4. You can't rearrange letters in his name to spell "madness", but you can rearrange them to spell "prehension". This is the act of holding, seizing, or grasping which is pretty much what rebounding is. I think we'll call this all even. Hope this helps in deciding which team to pick.
#2 Michigan State will play their 100th tournament game in the opening round
They join the four truest of the truest blue bloods, UNC, Duke, Kentucky, and Kansas as the only teams to play triple-digit tournament games.
#15 Bryant is third in the nation in total blocks with 200
This would be more impressive if they played anyone worth a dog's shit. Well, OK, they played St. Johns and lost by over 20. The next best team they played was Grand Canyon who I believe is right in the lower 90s on the NET rankings. Grand Canyon snuck out a win in that one by a score of 112-66. Not the worst beat down of the year though, at least. That'd be Kansas City over Calvary on November 18th (119-19).
On the plus side, Bryant is undefeated against quad one teams (0-0).
I'll be back tomorrow morning with the next region. Hope you're starting to feel a little more confident in pressing the icons on those brackets.