Each March, before I fill in my NCAA tournament bracket, I like to pause a moment and consider the most important statistic related to each of the 68 teams in the field. Sometimes it's a number recorded by an individual player or the head coach; other times, it's a collective team statistic. This March, I've found some numbers that really surprise me -- both in good and bad ways.
Here are the numbers to know for each of the field's 68 teams:
1. Kansas
Number to know: 51
The Jayhawks haven't walked off of a basketball floor in defeat for 51 days now, a rather impressive feat for a team playing in the Big 12, statistically the strongest conference in the nation. Since Bill Self solidified his rotation by starting Landen Lucas alongside Perry Ellis, the Jayhawks have been able to combine potent scoring with formidable defense in a manner that is downright KU-like.