Bracket Help

I was going to keep this to myself but I like to share so here it goes. If you've noticed I mentioned adjusted offense and defense efficiency a lot lately. The reason I've kept a close eye on this stat this year is that I've found 2 stats that are eye opening for picking brackets. Essentially what the Efficiency stats are reporting are the amount of points scored (offense) per 100 possessions and the amount of point given up (defense) per 100 possessions. The offense efficiency is cool to see but the defense efficiency is key and you'll see why here:

No Team has ever made the Elite 8 that was not in the top 50 in defensive efficiency

and further

No Team has ever made the Final 4 that was not in the top 25 in defensive efficiency

Now, what this is saying is you can basically remove a ton of teams from your brackets right away. I've kept a close eye on UNC because I'd love to be able to remove them from the equation right away. Currently they are 19th in defensive efficiency (2nd in offense) so they still remain in the mix. The rest of the top 25 are below, along with the link.

Rank Team Adjusted Defense Efficiency Adjusted Offense Efficiency
1 Memphis (25-3) 81.3 113.3
2 Louisville (22-5) 84.1 111.1
3 Connecticut (26-2) 85.0 115.8
4 Illinois (23-6) 85.3 106.1
5 Purdue (21-7) 85.7 108.0
6 West Virginia (19-9) 86.0 112.9
7 Duke (23-5) 87.9 117.3
8 Missouri (24-4) 87.9 115.8
9 Stephen F. Austin (18-7) 88.1 93.7
10 Kansas (23-5) 88.1 114.6
11 Michigan St. (22-5) 88.4 113.3
12 Florida St. (21-7) 88.5 103.7
13 Washington (21-7) 88.8 113.1
14 Washington St. (15-13) 89.1 105.7
15 Kentucky (19-9) 89.2 107.2
16 Wake Forest (21-5) 89.5 112.8
17 Xavier (23-5) 89.7 110.5
18 Nebraska (16-10) 89.7 101.2
19 North Carolina (24-3) 90.1 123.0
20 Brigham Young (21-6) 90.2 115.9
21 Southern California (16-11) 90.3 108.4
22 Wright St. (17-12) 90.4 97.5
23 Minnesota (20-8) 90.8 106.1
24 Gonzaga (22-5) 91.0 116.5
25 Arizona St. (21-6) 91.1 117.1


http://www.kenpom.com/rate.php?s=AdjDE