MARCH STATNESS: 64 Stats On 64 NCAA Men's Basketball March Madness Teams (Part 2/4: Midwest Region)
Jamie Schwaberow. Getty Images.The quest continues. To find an interesting stat on every team in the NCAA Tournament. This is part two of four as we'll cover one region a day ending Thursday morning before tip-off. You can catch up on the South region from yesterday here.
Today we move our gaze to the Mid-West. Get those bracket apps ready. My hope is this blog series will help you in making your decisions. However, I am not guaranteeing or even implying it will improve on any.
#1 Houston's J'Wan Roberts has the most field goal attempts in the nation without attempting a three pointer (227)
While analytics says shooting threes is the plus EV move that doesn't account for the fact that Roberts is 0-6 in his career from behind the arc. Out of 894 shots in his five year career, six threes accounts for .6% of his total shots. Now he's coming off an injury but last I saw he should be good to go for the tournament. All I want to see is him burry one. Even if I'm the only idiot that notices and realizes what a feat that would be.
#16 SIU-E has the exact same free throw percentage to the hundredths column as SIU
I did some research and found that SEIU is a proud union that boasts over 2 million members in public service and health care industries. This is a fact, but probably not one that you give a rat's ass about, since we're talking about SIUE, not SEIU.
It's OK if you know nothing about SIUE as this will be their first appearance in the NCAA Tournament. I went to Western Illinois which isn't that far from the SIU campuses and is also by no means a humble brag. But I knew many people from high school that went to SIU. And I know the E in SIU-E stands for Edwardsville, which is where students go who want to attend SIU to study and not party their brains out. I don't think I knew anyone that went to SIU-E.
But 2025 is their year. While SIU has been the tournament nine times for a total of 14-games, Edwardsville get's finally gets their chance. And they are going to get stuffed into a corn cob off I-55.
#8 Gonzaga averages the most assists in the nation and second most points
19.6 assists per game leads everyone with Cornell of all schools next at 19.3. And only Alabama scores more points. This team is a well oiled machine led by the great Mark Few. I can't see Georgia being able to keep up. And if you're a Georgia fan, their stat won't give you much reason for excitement.
#9 Georgia is second-last in the nation in field goal percentage on the road (40.1%)
Teams that just play well at home are tough to trust come tournament time. Only Pitt had a worse road shooting percentage at 39%. When you sort their individual game shooting percentages, the worst six games were all on the road and their best seven were at home. Interestingly, their four neutral location games were all in the middle in terms of field goal percentage (between 11th best and 22nd best game). Pretty much a perfect correlation.
There's nothing like home cooking in the South. Problem is - tournament's aren't played at home. Gimmie the Zags in this one.
#5 Clemson's 27 wins are the most in school history
And when you account for a couple vacated wins in 1989, this means Brad Brownell coached the two most winningest seasons in Clemson history. The only problem is how weak the ACC is this year. At first I looked at Clemson as a potential contender but then I reminded myself that they play in a fraudulent conference. On the other hand, they did beat Duke, so this will probably be a popular pick for a sneaky deep run.
#12 McNeese has won 22 out of their last 23 games
Now here's a 12 vs a 5 upset no one is talking about. But this seems like the recipe for an upset. You have a favorite that is probably due to their weak conference going against a hot mid major who beat actual teams such as LeTourneau (103-69) and College of Biblical Studies (111-57). When I say actual, I mean I literally didn't make those names up. This is what I love about the tournament. McNeese gets to play the "we can only play who's on our schedule" card. Seriously though, McNeese has played no one so as much as I want to go hipster here and take McNeese, I think Clemson is going to be fine.
#4 Purdue's Trey Kaufman-Renn leads the nation in field goals made per game (8.18)
He leads Kameron Jones of Marquette who averages 7.88. And in Kaufmen-Renn's last three games he's shot 24, 20, and 23 shots for the Boilermakers. I guess he's just the new Zach Edey peg for Matt Painter. Whatever happens to Purdue seems to be dependent on how this guy does (9-24 shooting in the loss to Michigan in his last game).
#13 High Point is the best shooting team in the nation on the road (50.7%)
This is actually pretty damn impressive for a 13-seed. Interesting. They average 29.2 made shots per game on 57.7 attempts, giving them a better efficiency than Duke (49%) and Alabama (48.9%) who come in second and third in this category. And let's face it. They don't call their first round opponent Purdon't for nothing. Matt Painter teams are the poster children for choking in the tournament. And all it'll take it appears is another off shooting night for Kaufman-Renn.
I'm in on High Point. Everyone's talking about this being the year of the chalk. We gotta find something though. High Point might be it.
#6 Illinois averages 30.3 threes per game which leads any team in the tournament
Shout out North Florida who led the nation in threes with 35.8 per game. But what does this mean for us trying to fill out our bracket? I think it means this team can probably beat and lose to anyone. When you shoot a ton of threes, you can win big and lose big depending on how you shoot.
#11 Texas/Xavier
Xavier beat Nebraska as a 14 seed vs 3 seed way back in 1991. They're no stranger to the tournament as they've been in 56 total games and while left out in the March cold last year, made it to the Sweet 16 in 2023. And it was Texas that took them down then. I think the same story this season. Better rank. Better opponents. But that's just the play-in. Whoever wins this will then go on to lose to… fuck… I forget who they'll play but they will lose. Count on it.
#3 Kentucky is 22-11 this season and were 23-10 last season
There you go. Calipari was worth one win more than Mark Pope. I do love Kentucky though to go deep. Lamont Butler should be good to go and they're a fun team to watch.
#14 Troy is not a team you want to pick as a sleeper
The best team they beat was Alabama. No not that Alabama. Rank #124 South Alabama. They also lost to them.
#7 UCLA might be a sleeper
Remember. They made the Final Four as an 11 Seed in 2021. This stat would probably mean a little more if this weren't a league in which every player from five years ago is now gone. But still. Look at who they beat this year. Zaga. Michigan State. Arizona. Wisconsin. Oregon twice. This team can play. And if that's not enough for you. Remember, this is the first tournament without Bill Walton. If you thought he had spirit in life - imagine what he's about to do from above.
#10 Utah State is one of the worst tournament teams of all time
If you're looking for a 10/7 upset pick I would invite you to check out any other blogs in this series first. I don't know what sort of connections this school has with the selection committee but they've played in 19 tournaments now and have a 2-19 record to show for it. Now they are 1-1 when playing in the East Region which is pretty good but as you will recall, this is the Mid-West Region.
I'll put my money on dead Bill Walton in this one.
#2 Tennessee is destined to make the Final Four
I couldn't find a fun stat on Tennessee for the longest time. All I had is that they started 14-0 as if anyone doesn't know that they were the last undefeated team. Then it hit me. It's written in the stars that Tennessee will make the Final Four and lose. And they'll win the entire tournament next year (not betting advice). Here's why.
2020: 0 tournament appearances (COVID whatever. doesn't matter)
2021: 1 tournament appearance
2022: 2 tournament appearances
2023: 3 tournament appearances
2024: 4 tournament appearances
2025: ????
Like some off brand Fibonacci sequence written in the checkered orange stars. But they'll have to earn their destiny one game at time. Let's see what they'll be up against…
#15 Wofford is 342nd in the nation in free throw percentage
66.1 percent. The ultimate "just kids" example of the NCAA tournament. I'll take the Tenne-nacci sequence in this one.
OK - halfway through this. My brain is oozing random stupid NCAA stats at this point, but we still have a long way to go before tip-off Thursday morning. Much more to come.