Tempo-Free Stats for the Women's Final Four

I apologize for taking so long to put this together - the Big East women's basketball statistics are woefully incomplete, and a couple of the games didn't even make ESPN's website. I'm limiting the stats to conference-only results, since the parity in women's basketball is even more divergent than the men's, and this evens the playing field a bit. If you need a refresher on what the numbers mean, Big Ten Wonk has the quick introduction.

Teams                   PPP    eFG   OReb    TO %   FTP
North Carolina (11-3)   1.04  0.489  0.415  0.226  0.252
Rutgers (12-4)          1.01  0.485  0.339  0.216  0.191
Tennessee (14-0)        0.99  0.463  0.387  0.218  0.221
Lousiana State (10-4)   0.97  0.453  0.357  0.194  0.191

North Carolina is the offensive powerhouse of this Final Four, in part by playing a similar syle to their male counterparts. They run faster than the other three schools, dominate the offensive boards, and don't worry as much about turnovers. Contrast that to the other three offenses with poorer shooting and rebounding, but better at holding on to the ball. The Heels also have an advntage drawing fouls, getting much more of their points from the charity stripe than the rest of the field.

                OPPP   OeFG   DReb   OTO%   OFTO
Tennessee       0.73  0.409  0.680  0.333  0.297
North Carolina  0.78  0.396  0.628  0.275  0.303
Louisiana State 0.80  0.395  0.702  0.242  0.236
Rutgers         0.80  0.384  0.721  0.260  0.289

For being such a strong offensive rebounding team, the Heels are considerably weaker on the defensive boards, the worst of any Final Four team. Defensively, Tennessee is the real threat, with a vicious ability to generate turnovers, surpassing even UNC's impressive defensive skills. One out of every three times the Vols' opponents brought the ball down the court, they coughed it up without a shot. It's difficult to win a game with that kind of handicap.

The slower LSU and Rutgers teams make use their defenses as efficient rebounders, keeping second-chance shots to a minimum. All four teams do a good job defending against the shot.

Team            3FGA/A  3FG %
North Carolina   0.293  0.319
Rutgers          0.270  0.382
Tennessee        0.261  0.309
Louisiana State  0.166  0.336

I would have thought LSU was the perimieter-oriented team, with their low turnovers and few points from the free throw line, but the Tigers barely take any threes at all. UNC shoots the most from behind the arc, which if you;ve seen many Tar Heel games this year, you'll now that isn't very much. Three point-shooting doesn't look to be a big factor in this year's Final Four.

And finally, the efficiency margin:

North Carolina  0.26
Tennessee       0.26
Rutgers         0.22
Louisiana State 0.17

All four teams are here for a reason, folks. They look to be good games, even if you have the same feeling I do that the championship is the second game on Sunday night.