The average Sweet 16 team also allowed under 60 points per game, which may surprise some television viewers. Louisville, Oregon, Michigan State, Kansas, Michigan and Miami were the six teams that allowed under 60 in both rounds. Shooting close to 50 percent from the field was also the benchmark for the remaining teams, with Louisville, Arizona and Michigan as the only teams to make more than half their field goal attempts in both contests. Arizona, Ohio State and Syracuse are the only teams that shot at least 40 percent from 3-point range in both games.
A very important trait among the teams still alive is a relatively balanced scoring attack. The average leading scorer on a regional semifinalist is just 21.6 points, with no player going over 30 points. The assist to turnover ratio isn’t as high as anticipated, but teams with more than 13 turnovers per game probably won’t get very far unless they become more disciplined.
Miami, Ohio State, Duke and LaSalle committed the fewest turnovers, while Kansas, Oregon and Michigan State were the sloppiest teams. With Louisville’s press the next challenge for Dana Altman’s turnover-prone Ducks, Oregon seems like a longshot to advance to the Elite Eight.
Over to the defensive side of the ball, the best teams have several tell-tale stats that separate them from the clubs that will have a short stay at the regionals this coming week:
| Team | FG D % | 3FG D % | Reb Margin | Asst Margin | BLK Margin | FT Margin | FT% |
| LOU | 41.5 | 37.5 | 9 | 7 | 2 | 12 | 59.1 |
| LOU | 47.5 | 41.7 | 3 | 10 | -2 | -3 | 83.3 |
| ORE | 40.4 | 29.4 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 66.7 |
| ORE | 37.7 | 14.3 | 14 | 7 | 2 | -6 | 62.5 |
| MSU | 35.2 | 28 | 24 | 6 | -2 | -3 | 63.3 |
| MSU | 29.7 | 21.7 | 16 | 6 | 2 | 12 | 63.6 |
| DUKE | 36.5 | 60 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 71.4 |
| DUKE | 30.2 | 10.5 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 75 |
| WICH | 35.2 | 5.9 | 2 | 3 | -4 | 17 | 80.5 |
| WICH | 35.6 | 34.8 | -9 | 3 | 4 | -11 | 66.7 |
| LaSalle | 49.1 | 38.9 | -9 | 2 | 0 | -6 | 58.3 |
| LaSalle | 42.1 | 30.8 | -4 | 0 | -2 | -1 | 87.5 |
| LaSalle | 47.6 | 21.1 | -8 | 0 | 0 | -3 | 72.2 |
| ARZ | 39.2 | 29.6 | 27 | 6 | 5 | -3 | 70 |
| ARZ | 27.6 | 27.8 | 8 | 1 | 1 | -3 | 68.8 |
| OSU | 35.4 | 21.4 | 9 | 12 | 5 | 4 | 80 |
| OSU | 44.2 | 48 | -15 | -2 | 2 | 3 | 73.1 |
| KU | 31.8 | 15 | -2 | 3 | 9 | 12 | 80 |
| KU | 30.1 | 28.6 | 17 | 1 | 4 | 11 | 81 |
| MICH | 44.2 | 21.1 | 0 | -1 | 3 | 1 | 66.7 |
| MICH | 39.7 | 18.8 | 15 | 11 | -2 | 5 | 90.9 |
| FLA | 36 | 18.8 | 19 | 4 | -1 | 12 | 60.9 |
| FLA | 40 | 44.4 | -3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 50 |
| FGCU | 37.5 | 25.9 | -2 | 0 | -1 | 24 | 68.2 |
| FGCU | 44.3 | 34.8 | -6 | 5 | -1 | -1 | 66.7 |
| IU | 41.9 | 40 | 11 | 10 | 0 | 17 | 76.2 |
| IU | 33.9 | 12.5 | 0 | 1 | -2 | 12 | 80 |
| SYR | 20.4 | 12.9 | 11 | 16 | -1 | 19 | 71 |
| SYR | 39.3 | 19 | 2 | -7 | 1 | 21 | 63.4 |
| MARQ | 41.3 | 35.3 | 15 | -7 | 0 | -3 | 78.9 |
| MARQ | 42.9 | 45.8 | 0 | -4 | -4 | 8 | 85.2 |
| MIA | 33.3 | 34.6 | 12 | 3 | 3 | 10 | 85.7 |
| MIA | 37.7 | 25.9 | -3 | 5 | -1 | 8 | 66.7 |
| AVERAGES | 37.8 | 28.3 | 5.4 | 3.2 | 0.8 | 5.7 | 71.9 |
Just to get to the Sweet 16, your field goal defense has to be pretty damn good, with the average team holding teams to under 38 percent shooting from the field. Michigan State, Duke, Wichita State, Kansas and Miami were the top defensive teams in terms of overall field goal percentage. Syracuse, Michigan and Wichita State were the best teams at defending the three, while Louisville and Marquette were over 10 percent worse than the average 3-point field goal D.
Next, we hit the “margin” portion of this article, but the data found is far from marginal. The two most important factors seem to be rebounding and free throw margins.
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