How to win a conference tournament

Kennesaw State clamped down on defense to spur its three-game run to the Conference USA title and an NCAA Tournament bid. I compared the Owls' per-game averages across the regular season and the Conference USA tournament (March 10 onward) in scoring, scoring margin, shooting, turnovers, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks and fouls, to see what changed once the games mattered most. Their average margin of victory grew from 7.2 points in the regular season to 8.7 in the tournament, while the points they allowed dropped from 76.3 to 73.3 per game.