Here I present the tempo free stats in the first four tournament games for every player in the Final Four.

Kentucky

PctMin

Ortg

PctPoss

Teague, Marquis

84%

114.0

23%

Davis, Anthony

83%

139.6

20%

Jones, Terrence

81%

122.3

21%

Kidd-Gilchrist, Michael

80%

116.0

21%

Miller, Darius

80%

154.1

14%

Lamb, Doron

74%

126.5

21%

Wiltjer, Kyle

15%

91.3

19%

Vargas, Eloy

3%

110.1

19%

Kentucky is essentially using a six-player rotation in the NCAA tournament. Kyle Wiltjer has hit a few threes in the tournament so far, but he has also turned the ball over and his minutes have been very limited.

Darius Miller has been the most efficient Wildcat in the tournament, knocking down 5 of 10 threes and 63% of his twos while committing only two turnovers in the process.  But Miller has mostly been deferring to his teammates, using only 14% of the possessions when on the floor. Because Anthony Davis uses a higher volume of possessions, his efficiency rating is probably the most impressive of all the players in the Final Four.

It was apparent to me starting with the McDonald’s All-American game last year that Davis had the potential to be the best player in the country. But I still can’t believe he developed his game this quickly. To be a consensus top pick in the draft, national player-of-the-year candidate, and the most efficient player in the Final Four (among players with at least 20% of the possession’s used in the tournament) is truly phenomenal.

Most of these ratings are consistent with the regular season, but the one exception is Marquis Teague.  Before the tournament Teague had an ORtg near 97 and it would have been very foolish for him to declare for the NBA draft.  Now, after raising his level of play late in the season, he might very well be able to follow the path of Derrick Rose and John Wall.

Louisville

PctMin

Ortg

PctPoss

Kuric, Kyle

89%

99.8

15%

Dieng, Gorgui

84%

102.3

13%

Behanan, Chane

80%

121.2

22%

Siva, Peyton

73%

97.1

27%

Smith, Chris

67%

106.7

14%

Smith, Russ

51%

97.3

40%

Swopshire, Jared

32%

128.3

14%

Blackshear, Wayne

14%

55.6

17%

Justice, Elisha

6%

53.0

19%

Ware, Kevin

3%

59.9

16%

If you haven’t followed Louisville this year, you might not know much about Russ Smith, but Luke Winn hit the nail on the head in this column. Russ Smith has never seen a shot he refuses to take.  He used fully 35% of his team’s possessions in the regular season when on the floor.  Amazingly, he’s raised that number in the post-season, using 40% of his team’s possessions. His 97 ORtg still isn’t great, eight of 32 on twos will do that, but it is higher than his 91 ORtg in the regular season.

Moreover, on this Louisville team, Smith’s reckless aggressiveness has been fairly useful. Chane Behanan has been the only efficient starter, and Louisville can only feed him for lay-ups so often. And with Kyle Kuric and Chris Smith performing below their regular season efficiency in the tournament, Smith’s scoring has been essential to Louisville’s success.

When Russ Smith isn’t dominating the ball, Peyton Siva does the same.  Only with Smith around could Siva looked like the point-guard who defers.

There is some talk of Jared Swopshire transferring based on his struggles this season, but if this is his last go-around for Louisville, he has saved his best for last. He hasn’t played many minutes in the tournament, but when he has been on the floor, he has been effective.

Ohio St.

PctMin

Ortg

PctPoss

Thomas, Deshaun

96%

124.4

25%

Craft, Aaron

94%

113.4

17%

Buford, William

87%

95.3

21%

Smith Jr., Lenzelle

77%

124.2

15%

Sullinger ,Jared

76%

129.1

27%

Scott, Shannon

29%

48.7

13%

Ravenel, Evan

18%

77.7

17%

Thompson, Sam

14%

131.7

11%

Williams, Amir

8%

58.4

28%

In Thad Matta’s world, ideally he wouldn’t play his bench at all. DeShaun Thomas has averaged over 39 minutes in the last 3 games and the only reason he played 35 minutes against Loyola (Md) in the first round is because the game was a blowout.

Thomas has been an absolute offensive monster in the NCAA tournament.  I still have some questions about his defense, but his offensive performance has been comparable to Jared Sullinger. And because he has not gotten in foul trouble, Thomas has played more minutes and scored 15 more points than Sullinger.

Only William Buford has really struggled for Ohio St. and that is a season-long trend.  Buford is shooting just 26% on his twos and 33% on his threes in the NCAA tournament so far.

Lenzelle Smith Jr. has been very efficient so far, but his performance is far less impressive because he defers so much, using only 15% of the team’s possessions when on the floor.

Amir Williams and Evan Ravenel have barely been on the court, but they had a few turnovers in their limited action which is why their ORtg is less impressive than you might have expected.

Kansas

PctMin

Ortg

PctPoss

Johnson, Elijah

83%

114.6

18%

Taylor, Tyshawn

82%

82.1

26%

Robinson, Thomas

79%

95.0

32%

Releford, Travis

75%

109.2

14%

Withey, Jeff

66%

135.5

14%

Teahan, Conner

57%

87.1

11%

Young, Kevin

41%

95.2

21%

Tharpe, Naadir

11%

46.9

26%

Wesley, Justin

6%

118.6

13%

Kansas has been using seven players regularly, which probably gives them the deepest full rotation in the tournament. And if that doesn’t prove that depth is over-rated in the NCAA tournament, I don’t know what would.  When you have TV timeouts every 4 minutes, good players can play virtually the entire game.

Tyshawn Taylor played better against North Carolina, but he has still struggled mightily in this tournament. His 82.1 ORtg is easily the lowest among regular rotation players on all four of these teams. Thomas Robinson has also struggled as teams have either had the size (John Henson of North Carolina) or the strategy (3 players on Robinson vs Purdue) to take him off of his game. Jeff Withey and Elijah Johnson have responded by putting the team on their back, but the truth is that Kansas did not get to this point with efficient offense.  Like Louisville, Kansas made the Final Four by riding their defense.