For the second time in history, all four of the one seeds are playing in this year’s NCAA basketball tournament’s final four. The four teams consist of the Auburn Tigers, Duke Blue Devils, Florida Gators, and the Houston Cougars. The Final Four is being played in the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
As of right now, both the Blue Devils and the Gators are tied in the favoring of odds for winning the National Title. The four teams meeting in the Final Four have been the top dogs throughout the whole entire season. The Duke Blue Devils are led by their star Freshman guard, Cooper Flagg, who averages 19 points per game, four assists per game, and seven and a half rebounds per game. He has been the go to guy all season long for them. The Gators, on the other hand, are led by their Senior, Walter Clayton Jr. Throughout the season, he has averaged 18 points per game, four assists per game, and three and a half rebounds per game. His most recent game in the tournament was against Texas Tech where he had 30 points.
When it comes to the Auburn Tigers, they are led by the SEC player of the year, who averages 18.7 points per game, three assists per game, and 11 rebounds per game. With the stats, he averages a very nice double-double. That means a stat that is in double digits, and he records two of those every game. Last but not least, it comes to the Houston Cougars, where they are really led by one person because most of their team is filled with the same consistent stats throughout all of the players. The player that averages the most points, though, is L.J. Cryer, who averages 15.4 points per game. All of these players mentioned should play huge roles for their teams into the run the the Championship.
“This Final Four is absolutely incredible. These four squads are the top four teams in the KenPom.com efficiency ratings (the most digestible analytics for fans) and have a combined record of 135-16. All four teams are rated in the top 10 in both offensive and defensive efficiency, which is amazing and unusual. Better still, these four teams are each among the top 10 most efficient in the history of KenPom.com ratings, available since 1997. Duke is No. 2 all time, Houston No. 6, Florida No. 8 and Auburn No. 10. That is all time.”
With the Final Four coming up this Saturday, April 5th, we will see who will come out on top in both games and eventually play in the championship on Monday, April 7th. As said earlier, Florida and Duke are the favorites, but anything can happen on any given day. Auburn could do something magical; so could Houston. It will have to play out by year.
