MARCH STATNESS: 64 Stats On 64 NCAA Men's Basketball March Madness Teams (Part 4/4: West Region)
Andy Lyons. Getty Images.Madness starts today. But before you ditch school/work/toddlers in their high chair to stare at pixels the rest of the day let's finish up pulling stats on the final 16 teams in the dance. We've covered the South on Monday. The Midwest on Tuesday. The East on Wednesday. Today we conclude with the final region. The West.
#1 Florida has scored 474 points in their last five games leading every other team in the nation
Florida is going to be a hot pick to win it all for everyone that hates Duke. This means, pretty much everyone is going to pick Florida. They just look like they're in another class vs everyone they play. And with 86-points in the conference championship, they just barely fell short of making it five games in a row scoring at least 90-points.
Akron is next in this recent scoring stat, scoring 456, but hardly against the same caliber opponent. Alabama is next at 444.
#16 Norfolk State beat Penn State and Virginia this season
Community notes - that's Penn State Wilkes-Barre and Virginia Lynchburg who has the worst point differential in the nation. They only played road games and appears to have called the season a quits after a nail biting loss to Delaware State.
#8 UConn leads the nation in blocks per game (6.55)
I'd have thought Auburn, but they come in second place with 6.39. Pretty incredible feat for a team that lost Clingan to the draft this year. Even so, doesn't look like this team is going to be a real contender to three-peat. Except, that's probably exactly the narrative Danny Hurley wants. I wouldn't put it past him that he's been hustling everyone knowing if he's going to win it all again this year, he needs to have ammo to pull out of his bag.
#9 Oklahoma's Jeremiah Fears has 114 turnovers this season
That's actually just 3.45 per game but looks a lot worse tallied up. One of those stats that pretty much just means he's the most involved player on the team, but something to look out for if this game is tight.
#5 Memphis shot 13/18 from three-point range in a game
72%. Pretty solid when you consider Wofford's free throw shooting was in the 60s. However, when you look at just about every stat, they are not as good as their #12 seed opponent, Colorado State. Just an inexplicable seed mix up it appears. Maybe the papers got mixed up when Bubba Cunningham left the room.
#4 Maryland is 22-3 all-time in the first round of the tournament
This puts them with the blue bloods in terms of round one win percentage with at least four games played. The top five go Kansas (38-2), UNC (33-2), Duke (33-4), Maryland (22-3) and Kentucky (29-5).
#13 Grand Canyon is surprisingly 11th in the nation at defensive rating (94.7)
Didn't expect this to be a complimentary stat, but here we are. The problem? Maryland is ranked 9th. 69 points allowed per game for Grand Canyon vs 67 for Maryland. Maybe look into the under here which is somewhere in the 150 range. But if you're looking to score in this game, be prepared for the crabs in the Canyon.
#6 Missouri attempts 27 free throws per game at just 72.6%
That's third in the nation in free throws per game behind Winthrop (28.5) and South Dakota (28). Maybe cool it on the James Harden tape, Missouri kids. This is not the combo you want going into the tournament. The thing about being a free throw merchant is that you actually want to get something in the trade. Preferably making the free throws. Teams with a better free throw percentage include Navy, Sacred Heart, Longwood, Detroit Mercy, and California Baptist.
#11 Drake has the top two players in the nation in minutes per game played
Bennett Stirtz (1,299) and Mitch Mascari (1,270) are playing in a Tom Thibodeau wet dream. That's 39.36 and 38.48 minutes on average respectively for these two future New York Knicks.
So when you hear Drake is a slow team with the fewest possessions, you now know why. Dudes are straight up gassed and treat the offensive end like a smoker treats a tree stump on an elevated hike. For that reason, they've taken the fewest amount of shots per game of any team in the dance as well. This will be something to watch.
One other thing. Drake needs to play Lamar (an actual school) at least once every year. Make it happen.
#3 Texas Tech is 6-1 all-time in the West Region
Nothing like being close to home. This doesn't count Final Four games, but they won all four games out of the West in 2022, then lost in Round 3 to Duke back in 2019. So this was the draw they needed and many think this team has what it takes to challenge one of the very strong 1 and 2 seeds.
#14 UNC-W ended Big Cat's 16-0 March
Other than that, I see them putting up a UNC-L vs Texas Tech.
#7 Kansas' Rakease Passmore is rank 3,057 in the nation in assists per game (.35 per game)
I hate to do this with a walk-on type who plays just a few minutes a game. But come on. Make your family name proud, kid.
#10 Arkansas is 15-3 in the Midwest Region
This would be more helpful for them if they were in the Midwest region this season.
#2 St. Johns went 1/21 from three point range in a game and still won
I don't know whether to be impressed or put off by this. I've been thinking for a while St. Johns might have what it takes to make a real run to the Final Four. But I can't see them getting by Florida. Another find I have on them is they are bad clutch free throw shooters. Just 18/39 (46%) in the last two minutes of a 5-point game or less.
#15 Omaha beat two DII schools this year
Mount Marty and Mid American Christian. So, not even a good American Christian. The only real school they played was Iowa State and they got whomped 83-51. But hey - good luck to them on their first tournament game. They will need it.
That's it. 64 teams. 64 stats. Hope you enjoyed this March Statness. Now let's get to the games.
Catch up on the other regions before tip-off:
EAST:
MIDWEST
SOUTH