How do the four teams stack up?
Records
1. North Carolina 32-4
2. UConn 31-4
3. Michigan St. 30-6
4. Villanova 30-7
Points per game
1. North Carolina 90.0
2. UConn 78.5
3. Villanova 77.0
4. Michigan St. 71.8
Points allowed per game
1. Michigan St. 62.7
2. UConn 63.7
3. Villanova 66.1
4. North Carolina 72.1
NCAA Tournament Margin of Victory(Four Games)
1. UConn 25.2
2. North Carolina 22.5
3. Villanova 14.5
4. Michigan St. 9.2
Offensive Effeciency(Rank)
1. North Carolina 123.8 (1)
2. UConn 117.0 (12)
3. Villanova 115.7 (19)
4. Michigan St. (23)
Tempo(Rank)
1. North Carolina 73.8 (8)
2. Villanova 69.2 (65)
3. UConn 68.1 (97)
4. Michigan St. 66.9 (146)
Defensive Effeciency(Rank)
1. UConn 84.2 (3)
2. Michigan St. 88.3 (9)
3. Villanova 89.7 (15)
4. North Carolina 90.6 (18)
Pomeroy Ratings(Rank)
1. UConn (1)
2. North Carolina (3)
3. Michigan St. (9)
4. Villanova (12)
- As expected UNC is the best offensive team in the Final Four both according to effeciency and tempo. It is not even close either. UNC also comes in the with worst defense though it should be noted the Heels jumped from 22nd to 18th off the Oklahoma performance alone. In short if UNC does the job on offense and plays defense like they did versus Oklahoma I think they win the national championship.
- Looking at who has the best combo of both, it is UConn. I would also point out something that has been discussed here at THF and that is Pomeroy seems to tie tempo and defense together. I am not privy to the forumlatic musing here but the good defensive teams in Pomeroy's rating also tend to play slower. Hasheem Thabeet has a lot to do with UConn's defensive prowess but I was actually surprised to see Michigan St. was ninth overall. Then again if you saw how well the Spartans defended Louisville on Sunday, it is really not that surprising.
- Villanova, like UNC versus Oklahoma, is playing defense that exceeds their ranking.
- Overall this is the kind of Final Four you want to see. Four 30 win teams and all pretty good on both ends of the floor.