Photo: dailyncaa.com
An interesting stat thanks to Saline’s Pete Tiernan and his bracketscience.com. Heading into this season, there are 36 instances of #10 seeds advancing into the second round since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985. Given that they likely face a #2 seed in the next round, you’d think that history would show they didn’t make it much further. Not so.
Since ‘85 #10 seeds are a remarkable 18-18 (.500) in second round games and a stunning 15-18 versus #2 seeds. Let’s hope #10 Michigan can move that all-time tally closer to .500 tonight against #2 Oklahoma.
Mismatch: On more nugget from bracketscience.com, it turns out the Wolverines had a statistical ace in the hole on Thursday, or at least on the bench. Heading into the game John Beilein was the all-time top coach in Tiernan’s PASE (Performance Against Seed Expectation) statistic (+.865). The worst? Clemson’s Oliver Purnell (-.762). The result of the game just furthered the trend for these two guys.
