Scoring Surge: Inside Tulsa's Elite Top-25 Offense That's Fueling an 18-3 Start

There’s a team that went 13-20 last season to now become the 17th highest scoring team in the country. Some of the biggest reasons they’re scoring so many points is that they’re 7th in three point field goal percentage and 1st in free throw percentage. These two key statistics are why they’re the 24th ranked KenPom offense ahead of numerous March Madness teams from a season ago. Last season they were the 270th offense and 244th ranked defense clearly showing how big of a jump they took in just one season. Their two leading guards are shooting right at 40% and better from three point range and an elite 90%+ from the free throw stripe. Having not one but two guards who can score double figures with this much efficiency is truly a game changer not only in conference tournament play, but of course, in the NCAA tournament. Tulsa is currently 18-3 and 6-2 in conference play putting them tied at the top of the American Athletic Conference standings.

Tulsa is by far the most elite offensive team in the conference by the numbers with the next closest team being South Florida holding the 73rd offense. This puts Tulsa almost 50 teams ahead of the next one in their conference in terms of offensive efficiency as a whole. No other team in the league has an offense better than the 100th ranking making it very likely to be one of the two mentioned teams to make it into the NCAA Tournament.

Tulsa’s rotation consists of 5 out of 6 of their leading scorers being guards and being the biggest reasons why they are able to score with such ease. The flaw for this team is defensively where they rank 175th, a huge difference from their offensive numbers. This could cause this team issues if they do advance into a tournament scenario where they will likely be facing a team much better than them on this end of the floor. They will likely need to rely on their heavy guard rotation, elite three point shooting and free throw efficiency to score their way to the second round.