Stanford FBC: Stories of the Season: Continuing on to Lexington

March 23, 2016

Continuing on to Lexington

Stanford vs Washington in the Elite Eight? A tantalizing, but unlikely, possibility.

Five Thirty Eight gives Stanford a 15% chance of defeating Notre Dame and Washington an 18% chance of defeating Kentucky in Lexington on Friday.

Here's how the four teams in the Lexington Regional match up statistically:

	Stanford	Notre Dame	Washington	Kentucky
Points per game	67.9	79.9	62.1	74.8
Scoring margin	+13.7	+19.5	+8.9	+14.9
Field goal %	.425	.496	.411	.457
Opponents field goal %	.328	.372	.365	.362
3-pointers per game	6.6	6.0	7.1	4.7
3-point %	.359	.408	.333	.362
Free throw %	.686	.712	.784	.712
Rebounds per game	41.6	38.8	39.1	39.9
Rebounding margin	+5.9	+5.8	+0.8	+5.7
Assists per game	15.0	18.1	11.6	14.4
Turnovers per game	14.3	14.9	12.8	15.6
Assist/turnover ratio	1.1	1.2	0.9	0.9
Steals per game	6.8	9.2	7.4	6.8
Blocks per game	6.3	4.8	3.5	4.1
Overall record	26-7	33-1	24-10	25-7
Conference record	14-4	16-0	11-7	10-6
RPI	9	1	33	13
Schedule strength	2	4	10	23

Here is Mechelle Voepel's (espnW) preview of the Lexington Regional:

No. 3 Kentucky vs. No. 7 Washington (ESPN, 7 p.m. Friday): The "home" team, Kentucky, will have the postseason stage to itself, since the Kentucky men's team is already out of its tournament. The spotlight in Lexington will be on Matthew Mitchell's squad, which didn't have much trouble in the early rounds. Most were expecting a Kentucky showdown with Maryland, but instead the Wildcats will take on Washington. What the Huskies don't have in depth (they have none, essentially), they make up for in hustle and in having one of the best pure scorers in the college game in guard Kelsey Plum, who burned the Terps on Monday for 32 points. While the focus will be on the guards in this game -- the Wildcats will hope Makayla Epps' shoulder is OK by Friday -- this one could be decided by which team dominates the boards.
No. 1 Notre Dame vs. No. 4 Stanford (ESPN, 9:30 p.m. Friday): It looked as if the Irish were going to have a rematch with South Dakota State, a team Notre Dame beat by 11 points in November. Instead, it's a "braniac bowl" between the eggheads of South Bend versus the geniuses of Palo Alto. Seriously, these are two storied programs, both of which have racked up a ton of Final Four visits in recent years without winning a title. Both programs have won the national championship, but it's been awhile -- 2001 for Notre Dame, 1990 and 1992 for Stanford. Notre Dame guard Lindsay Allen appears to be at the top of her game. And in general this season, everything the Cardinal do well, the Irish tend to do a little bit better.

Stanford Cardinal