The No. 2 Arizona Wildcats will take on the No. 15 Long Beach State in the First Round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament. Arizona opens as a 21.5-point favorite at DraftKings Sportsbook.
Below we’ll preview both teams, including analysis and key stats while also providing our prediction.
Arizona key stats
NET: 4
KenPom Overall: 6
KenPom O: 8
KenPom D: 12
Record: 25-8
Strength of Schedule: 25
Conference: Pac-12
Conference Record: 15-5
Quad 1 Record: 8-3
Arizona enters the NCAA Tournament operating at one of the fastest and most efficient offensive tempos in the entire country. The Wildcats averaged roughly 90 points per game throughout the regular season, second only to Alabama in scoring. Several of their games were blowouts as they had one of the highest average scoring margins in the entire country. Most of those big wins came against a mediocre Pac-12 slate, so we’ll see if they can translate that to the Big Dance.
Long Beach State key stats
NET: 170
KenPom Overall: 163
KenPom O: 145
KenPom D: 210
Record: 21-14
Strength of Schedule: 182
Conference: Big West
Conference Record: 10-10
Quad 1 Record: 0-1
Long Beach State is in the Big Dance for the first time in 12 years and managed to extend the tenure of fired head coach Dan Monson. The Beach like to up the tempo on offense as they have an average possession length of 15.4 seconds. They do most of their work inside of the arc as 57.1% of their points have come from two.
Pick: Arizona Wildcats
