We’re a few days out from Selection Sunday, when we find out the 68 teams who will vie for the 2019 NCAA men’s basketball championship. Between now and then, there’s a lot of prognosticating as to who will go to which regional and who will end up facing a play-in on Tuesday, March 19, in Dayton just to make it into the round of 64. Putting together sports betting predictions for the bracket is tough without seeing the matchups, but what we can do is start piecing together information about some of the schools whose teams should appear. Take a look at some key numbers to think about in the last week before the 2019 March Madness tournament.
Key Numbers for the 2019 March Madness Tournament
See who made some last-minute moves in the final @CBTonNBC power rankings of the college basketball season 🏀 https://t.co/OgzpqdGe7d pic.twitter.com/nKt7P3r9X0
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) 11 de marzo de 2019
8
That’s how many games Maryland-Baltimore County (from the America East Conference) has won in their last nine games. They would need to win their conference tournament, at this point, to make it into the Big Dance, but stranger things have happened. If you’re wondering where you’ve heard of the Retrievers before, this is the team that upset Virginia in the first round last year. That’s right, 1-seed Virginia, the first 1-seed ever to fall in the opening round.
2
That’s the number of losses that the University of Houston has suffered this season. One loss came against Temple, and the other came against UCF (this past Saturday). The Cougars did rise as high as #9 in the national rankings, the highest they had been since the days of Phi Slamma Jamma and Akeem Olajuwon. However, the only quality win Houston has is a neutral-court win against LSU, so it would surprise me to see the Cougars still around in the Sweet 16.
397
That’s the number of points Florida State had gotten from bench players through February 19. Their opponents had totaled just 154 points off the bench. Mfiondu Kabengele led the team at that point with 13.2 points per game — and he comes off the bench. Nine different Seminoles have led the team in scoring in different games. With that sort of depth, the Seminoles would be a scary team to have to face, particularly once foul trouble starts nipping at the starters.
14
Kansas had won 14 consecutive regular season conference titles, but a 29-point rout at Texas Tech and then a loss at Oklahoma meant that they would not even have a share of the title. Bill Self has tried just about everything, including a starting lineup with four freshmen in it, but nothing has worked, as the loss to the Sooners made the Jayhawks’ road Big 12 record just 3-6.
40
Markus Howard put up 40 points in a half against Buffalo. Marquette looks to win their first Big East tournament ever — and they have never even advanced to a tournament final. With that kind of explosive scoring, Howard could put the Golden Eagles on his back for a deep March Madness run.
44.5
This is Ethan Happ’s free-throw shooting percentage. He’s an All-American from Wisconsin, and he shoots 54.5 percent from the floor. When will teams start fouling him proactively so that they can reduce his chances of scoring? Or when will he start working from the charity stripe in practice?
1
Could the Pac-12 really only send one team to the NCAA tournament? Oregon, one of the conference leaders, lost to Texas Southern. UCLA lost to Belmont and Liberty. At home. Arizona suffered their longest losing streak in over 30 years. Washington won 20 of their first 25 games to start the season — but couldn’t crack the top 25, thanks to a schedule full of tomato cans.
3
That’s the number of Division I teams that Abilene Christian (from the Southland Conference) has held under 50 points this season. They hadn’t done that at all since 1951. They have two losses in conference play, both to Sam Houston State, once by three and the other time in overtime. If the two teams meet in the conference championship for an automatic bid in the Big Dance, watch out.
