Hey, the tournament starts Tuesday night!
Plenty of relevant -- and yep, trivial -- info here. I know everybody likes some nuggets to help guide them through picking a bracket -- but not a total stat overload. I think this post is a nice blend of just enough stuff to know without a completely overwhelming info dump.
Let's have at it.
Highest-scoring team in the field: Green Bay (84.2 points per game).
Lowest-scoring team in the field: Holy Cross (65.3 points per game).
Fastest team: Green Bay (76.8 possessions per game).
Slowest team: Virginia (61.2 possessions per game).
Best free-throw shooting team: UConn (78.7).
Worst free-throw shooting team: Middle Tennessee (60.7).
Best 3-point shooting team: Michigan State (43.4).
Worst 3-point shooting team: Hampton (30.0).
Most efficient offenses, adjusted points scored per 100 possessions:
1. Kentucky (124.7)
2. Michigan State (122.2)
3. Iowa State (120.0)
Most efficient defenses, adjusted points allowed per 100 possessions:
1. Wichita State (89.9)
2. Virginia (91.9)
3. Kansas (92.0)
Best scorer in the tourney: Oklahoma's Buddy Hield (25.0).
Best rebounder: Weber State's Joel Bolomboy (12.7).
Best assist man: Michigan State's Denzel Valentine (7.6).
78: This is the 78th men's D-I NCAA Tournament. Thirty-five programs have won a national title dating back to 1939, when Oregon, a No. 1 seed in this year's field, won its first and only. This is the first time in Ducks history they have received a top seed.
1: The Virginia Cavaliers are the highest seeded team in the field without a national title.
5/1: Kansas' odds to win the national championship. See all of the odds for title contenders and each team's outlook on winning their respective region here.
29: The percentage of brackets at CBSSports.com that have Kansas winning it all.
16: According to our Bracket Voodoo wizardry, that's Kansas' percentage of winning the national title. For perspective, last year's Kentucky team was slated at 41 percent at the start of the tournament, which is an incredibly high number.
Here are the nine most likely teams to reach the Final Four. Notice that Oregon is the lowest on the list despite renting a top seed line.
1: Only three times has the No. 1 overall seed won the NCAAs since the selection committee began ranking the No. 1s in 2004: Florida (2007), Kentucky (2012) and Louisville (2013).
17: We know who has the most wins and fewest losses. But the most losses? Holy Cross at 14-19.
25.0: Per ESPN, the last time a team made the Final Four with a player who averaged 25 points or better was Georgia Tech in 1990 with Dennis Scott. Can Oklahoma do it with Hield?
15: Stephen F. Austin's 20 straight victories is the longest -- by far -- of any team entering the Dance.
-24.5: Kansas' -24.5 line against Austin Peay is the biggest line of the first round, while the Gonzaga-Seton Hall game is the only pick 'em on the board. Here's every line for every Thursday and Friday game.
0: Coaches with top-four seeds to never have made a Final Four:
- Tony Bennett
- Dana Altman
- Chris Mack
- Cuonzo Martin
- Billy Kennedy
- Larry Krystkowiak
- Steve Prohm
54: The combined number of wins from Tom Izzo, Mike Krzyzewski and John Calipari in the NCAA Tournament over the past six seasons.
24.6: average margin of victory for No. 1 seeds over No. 16s in the history of the modern tournament.
2009: The last time all four No. 1 seeds reached the Elite Eight.
2008: Famously the only time all four No. 1s reach the Final Four.
2007: You never wanna go all chalk in at the top on Thursday and Friday. Via ESPN, 2007 was the last time the top 16 seeded teams all made it to the weekend. And it's only happened five times since 1985.
No. 2: This, also via ESPN, is bonkers to me. Only one time in the past 19 NCAA Tournaments have all four No. 2 seeds made the Sweet 16. Gotta say, I'm feeling amazing about putting nothing but 2s into my Final Four!
10.9: Since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985, 10.9 is the average total number of the Final Four seeds over the past 30 tournaments. Last season was at 10: Kentucky (1), Wisconsin (1), Duke (1) and Michigan State (7).
10: A 10 seed has never made the Final Four.
7: Though the 7/10s feel like 8/9s, in reality, the 10s have never swept the 7s with the exception of one year.
A 7 seed has advanced past the first round every year except 1999: https://t.co/uITbEYexlT pic.twitter.com/43wLQCprbz
— NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness) March 15, 2016
57.5-to-1: Per bracketodds.com's calculator, those are the chances we'll have four No. 1 seeds reach the Final Four. Compare that to a 1, 1, 2 and 3 making the Final Four: 17.76-to-1 odds.
7: There is a four-way tie among conferences for the most bids: The Big 12, the Big Ten, the Pac-12 and the ACC all got seven in. Here's a complete rundown on league selection.
11 of 18: In the past 18 years, 11 of the 18 national champions won their conference tournament.
34: Saint Mary's, ranked 34th, is the highest-rated KenPom team that was eligible to make the field who didn't make the bracket. For comparison, Florida's No. 45 ranking last year was the highest.
30: St. Bonaventure's RPI, making it the highest RPI-rated team to miss the 2016 field. Bona's 30 is tied for the third-best RPI to never make the field. Colorado State was 29 in 2015 and missed out. (Missouri State at 21 in 2006 will most likely forever be the champion.)
72: Syracuse's RPI of 72 makes it the lowest-rated at-large team to be selected ... and the Orange got a 10 seed!
+.147: Hampton rates as the "luckiest" team in the field this year, per KenPom. In the past 14 NCAA Tournaments, the luckiest team in field lost its first game 12 of those years.
26: Xavier has the most NCAA Tournament appearances without reaching a Final Four of anyone in the field.
13: A 13 has beaten a 4 in five of the past seven NCAA Tournaments. Iona over Iowa State looks like the trendiest upset this year -- 13 or not.
10: Iona's making its 10th NCAA Tournament appearance, but has never won a game, the most fruitless run of any team in college basketball.
2: The number of teams making their debut in the NCAA Tournament: CSU Bakersfield and Stony Brook.
0 for 34: The NEC is still the only league that has never won a game in the Round of 64/first round. Fairleigh Dickinson is the conference rep this year, and if it gets past Florida Gulf Coast in Dayton, it will face No. 1 North Carolina.
52: Yale's 54-year drought is the longest of any team in this year's grid that previously made the NCAAs. Among programs that have previously made an NCAA Tournament, only Dartmouth had a longer one in all of D-I.
Most consecutive NCAA tourneys: Kansas (27), Duke (21), Michigan State (19), Gonzaga (17), Wisconsin (17). Additionally, Bill Self is coaching his 16th straight NCAA Tournament as a No. 4 seed or better. INSANE.
7: Kansas is in its seventh consecutive NCAA Tournament with a No. 1 or No. 2 seed. It's the first time this has ever happened at any program. Repeat after me: IN-FREAKING-INSANE.
88: Stephen F. Austin's wins the past two seasons, making coach Brad Underwood the second winningest coach to start a career (three years) in D-I men's history. (Brad Stevens being the best, with 89.)
2.72: Average playing experience for Tulsa, the most of any team in the field. Fairleigh Dikckinson, at .75 years of experience, is last according to KenPom. The five least experienced teams are FDU, Kentucky, Duke, Providence and Seton Hall. The grayest of the grayhairs are Tulsa, Iowa State, Little Rock, Chattanooga and Fresno State.
17-6: Here's a twist of the knife. Monmouth did not make the field this season despite going 17-6 away from home, those 17 road + neutral wins being the most of any team in college basketball. Yet, in 2015, UCLA's road/neutral record was 4-12, which amounted to the worst road/neutral performance of any team in at least 22 years to make the field. Adding an ironic twist: Where did Monmouth win its first game of the season? At UCLA.
A No. 12 seed has won 41 Round of 64 games since the field expanded 1985. Surprisingly, no 12s won last year, but in the three tournaments prior, they won 66 percent of their Round of 64 games. The '88, '00, '07 and '15 tournaments are the only ones since the field expanded in 1985 to not have a 12 seed win.
.840: Michigan State coach Tom Izzo's win percentage in the second round and Elite Eight. He is 21-4 in those games (i.e., on two-day turnaround). RIDICULOUS.
20-16: Since seeding the field began, No. 1 seeds have more national titles (20) than the rest of the seeds combined (16).
5: With Tubby Smith getting Texas Tech to the tourney this year, he joins Lon Kruger as the only coaches in history to bring five programs to the Big Dance.
10-15: Pick at least one double digit seed to reach the Sweet 16, because it's happened all but two years since '85.
20: Via this Gregg Doyel tweet, get a load of this. The Des Moines pod this year has eight teams with 18 total national NCAA Tournament championships (Kentucky with eight, Indiana with five, UConn with four and and Kansas with three). The next closest is Providence, with six, five of which are on Duke's account.
5 for 5: Since the First Four was initiated in 2011, every year has seen at least one team -- always one of the at-larges -- win at least one game once it gets to the field of 64. Who's it gonna be this year: Wichita State, Vandy, Michigan or Tulsa?
