Connecticut romped by means of the NCAA Tournament’s opening weekend in such trend that coach Dan Hurley is utilizing one phrase to explain the reigning nationwide champions’ vulnerability.
“We’re bulletproof,” Hurley mentioned after UConn routed Northwestern within the second spherical. “Again, elite offense, elite defense.”
For UConn, like the remainder of the 16 groups left in March Madness, the underlying information reveals a lot past these on-court performances. A chalky bracket with 4 No. 1 seeds nonetheless alive options a number of groups becoming the profile of previous Final Four groups and title winners in KenPom’s effectivity metrics.
In information to 2001, 15 of twenty-two nationwide champions ranked inside the highest 25 in each offensive and defensive effectivity getting into the NCAAs. Four outliers ranked inside the highest 10 for offensive effectivity whereas the opposite three did so for the defensive aspect.
And with regards to Final Four groups, greater than half (49 of 88) have been top-25 groups on each side, whereas 20 of these outliers ranked no less than within the top-10 of 1 class. The different 19 did neither.
That creates three tiers of Sweet 16 groups:
— Seven rating inside the highest 25 on each side: the Huskies, fellow 1-seeds Houston, Purdue and North Carolina; 2-seeds Arizona and Marquette; and 3-seed Creighton.
— Seven groups which can be top-10 performers at one finish: 2-seeds Tennessee and Iowa State; 3-seed Illinois; 4-seeds Duke and Alabama; and 5-seeds Gonzaga and San Diego State.
— Two outliers: 6-seed Clemson and 11-seed North Carolina State, a part of the Atlantic Coast Conference’s national-best 4 Sweet 16 groups.
The Huskies’ numbers look simply as dominant as their play.
UConn entered the NCAA Tournament ranked No. 1 by averaging 126.6 factors per 100 possessions, trailing solely 2018 champion Villanova (127.4) and 2015 runner-up Wisconsin (126.8) for the perfect of any workforce’s adjusted offensive effectivity since 2001.
The Huskies additionally ranked eleventh defensively coming into March Madness at 94.4 factors allowed per 100 possessions, and now have cracked the highest 10 there too when factoring in match video games.
“I think the biggest thing that makes you bulletproof in tournaments is if you play elite defense, if you play elite offense,” Hurley mentioned earlier than the Northwestern win. “If you’re a really, really strong rebounding team. If you play really, really hard. If you share the ball. If you’re not reliant on one or two players to carry you.”
Throw in high quality recreation prep and scouting, he mentioned, and “it puts you in a position where you’re not too vulnerable.”
The closest profile to UConn’s for a still-playing workforce is Arizona, which ranked eighth in offense (121.1) and twelfth in protection (94.5) getting into Round 1.
“We’re built to play lots of different styles,” Wildcats coach Tommy Lloyd mentioned earlier than a second-round win towards Dayton. “And generally, if you want to be a team that’s playing in transition, you better be a good defensive team so you’re not taking the ball out of the net. … And then you want to rebound the ball well.
“You put those things together, good defense and rebounding usually gives you an opportunity to play in transition offense.”
Of the remaining groups in that high tier, Purdue (fourth, 125.0) and Creighton (twelfth, 120.1) ranked stronger on the offensive aspect, whereas Houston (second, 87.2), UNC (sixth, 93.2) and Marquette (nineteenth, 95.6) have been higher defensively.
Boilermakers coach Matt Painter, whose workforce has buried the ghost of final 12 months’s Fairleigh Dickinson loss, echoed Lloyd on the worth of steadiness.
“As you get the tournament and you play quality people, you’ve got to be able to steal points somewhere,” he mentioned after Purdue scored 106 factors within the second-round win towards Utah State. “You can’t just play in the halfcourt.”
As for the second group, Alabama, Illinois, Duke and Gonzaga are all high 10 offenses, whereas Iowa State (first, 87.1), Tennessee (third, 91.1) and San Diego State (ninth, 93.8) have been top-10 defenses.
And in a chalky 12 months, that leaves Clemson (twenty seventh offense, 67th protection) and N.C. State (forty seventh offense, 89th protection) because the remaining underdogs.
Then once more, N.C. State has already confirmed that a lot can change rapidly. Kevin Keatts’ membership turned the primary to win 5 video games in 5 days on the ACC Tournament for this system’s first title since 1987, and now has prolonged that with two March wins — the Wolfpack hadn’t received greater than 4 straight video games at any level for the reason that 2020-21 season till now — for this system’s first Sweet 16 journey since 2015.
The mantra there was easy for a workforce that wouldn’t have made the NCAAs with out that ACC run: “Why not us?” And that perception has some worth past the metrics, too.
“I think that’s what March is about,” nimble large man DJ Burns Jr. mentioned after the second-round extra time win towards Oakland. “Some teams got here by winning their conference just like us and that doesn’t mean they’re a bad team. We executed and shoot, we just kept playing for each other.”
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and protection: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
(This story has not been edited by News18 employees and is printed from a syndicated information company feed – Associated Press)
