Which March Madness Teams are Most Injured? (2023)

This article is outdated. Please refer to my updated article for the 2024 Tournament.

Another year, another March Madness. As we scramble to fill out our yearly brackets, it’s important to keep injuries in mind. After all, a 2-Seed that lost its starting forward in the conference tournament may be less intimidating than a fully healthy 3-Seed on a roll.

This post attempts to statistically analyze the injuries of every NCAA Tournament team. I gathered player statistics and injury data from ESPN and Rotowire, and examined three basic metrics to assess the “injury level” of each team. Click to skip to any section:

Total Season Minutes (%) accounted for by injured players
Total Season Points (%) accounted for by injured players
Composite Injury Score that takes into account total season minutes & total season points from injured players

Furthermore, we might also want to take into account that some currently injured players may be ready to play by the first round. As a result, injured players can be separated into two groups: Game Time Decision (GTD) or Ruled Out.

Total Season Minutes (%)

First, we can look at how many total season minutes were accounted for by currently injured players. To do so, we can simply sum the minutes played by currently injured players (i.e. before injury) and divide by the total number of minutes played by the team. A higher percentage indicates that players that normally play a lot of minutes have been injured. Teams with high percentages may struggle to adjust lineups in the tournament to compensate.

The following chart summarizes this:

The full results can be found below:

Rank	Team	# Players Injured	% of Total Minutes Played	% of Total Minutes Played (GTD)	% of Total Minutes Played (Out)
1	UCLA	3	24.3	10.9	13.4
2	SE Missouri State	2	18.8	10.8	8.0
3	Houston	2	17.3	15.1	2.2
4	Kansas	3	14.6	14.5	0.1
5	Miami	1	14.2	14.2	0.0
6	Xavier	3	14.1	4.8	9.2
7	Tennessee	1	13.0	0.0	13.0
8	Texas A&M-CC	1	12.9	0.0	12.9
9	Missouri	3	11.6	11.6	0.0
10	Virginia	1	11.2	0.0	11.2
11	Kentucky	1	9.3	9.3	0.0
12	Iona	2	9.2	6.5	2.7
13	Kent State	1	9.1	9.1	0.0
14	NC State	2	9.0	9.0	0.0
15	Memphis	1	8.4	8.4	0.0
16	Baylor	1	7.7	7.7	0.0
17	Arizona State	2	7.4	6.6	0.8
18	Princeton	1	5.7	5.7	0.0
19	Northwestern	2	5.6	0.0	5.6
20	Indiana	3	5.3	1.1	4.2
21	Grand Canyon	1	4.7	0.0	4.7
22	West Virginia	2	4.6	4.6	0.0
23	Utah State	1	3.8	3.8	0.0
24	Arkansas	1	3.7	0.0	3.7
25	USC	1	3.0	3.0	0.0
26	Penn State	1	2.7	2.7	0.0
27	Pittsburgh	1	2.2	0.0	2.2
28	Boise State	1	1.7	1.7	0.0
29	Auburn	1	1.6	0.0	1.6
30	Nevada	1	1.0	0.0	1.0
31	Marquette	1	0.4	0.0	0.4
32	Drake	1	0.2	0.0	0.2

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Total Season Points (%)

Although minutes are a useful yardstick to see how injured a team is, we may be more interested in the productivity of each injured player. In other words, how much did each player score this season? After all, basketball at the end of the day is about scoring the most points. To look at this, we can simply sum the total points scored by currently injured players and divide by the total points scored by the team.

A higher percentage indicates that players that normally score a lot of points have been injured. Teams with high percentages may struggle to find scoring replacements in the tournament. See below for the results:

And full results:

Rank	Team	# Players Injured	% of Total Points Injured	% of Total Points Injured (GTD)	% of Total Points Injured (Out)
1	UCLA	3	25.5	10.0	15.5
2	Houston	2	23.2	22.1	1.1
3	Miami	1	17.2	17.2	0.0
4	Texas A&M-CC	1	15.6	0.0	15.6
5	Xavier	3	15.2	3.1	12.1
6	Kansas	3	13.7	13.7	0.0
7	Tennessee	1	13.6	0.0	13.6
8	SE Missouri State	2	13.2	8.6	4.6
9	Missouri	3	9.9	9.9	0.0
10	Virginia	1	9.9	0.0	9.9
11	Iona	2	9.0	6.0	3.0
12	Memphis	1	8.5	8.5	0.0
13	Baylor	1	7.7	7.7	0.0
14	Kentucky	1	6.7	6.7	0.0
15	Kent State	1	6.6	6.6	0.0
16	Arizona State	2	6.3	5.3	1.0
17	Indiana	3	5.5	1.1	4.4
18	Princeton	1	5.4	5.4	0.0
19	NC State	2	5.0	5.0	0.0
20	Grand Canyon	1	4.9	0.0	4.9
21	West Virginia	2	4.8	4.8	0.0
22	Arkansas	1	4.3	0.0	4.3
23	Northwestern	2	3.8	0.0	3.8
24	USC	1	3.2	3.2	0.0
25	Pittsburgh	1	2.5	0.0	2.5
26	Utah State	1	2.1	2.1	0.0
27	Nevada	1	1.5	0.0	1.5
28	Penn State	1	1.5	1.5	0.0
29	Boise State	1	1.4	1.4	0.0
30	Auburn	1	1.2	0.0	1.2
31	Drake	1	0.3	0.0	0.3
32	Marquette	1	0.1	0.0	0.1

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Composite Injury Score

We might also be interested in combining these two correlated, but different metrics to get a better idea of the full picture. To do so, I created a simple “composite score” by normalizing each variable and taking the average of the result. Since I took the mean of these normalized variables, the score is constructed such that values are within [0, 1], with 1 being the worst possible score.

A chart illustrating the results of this new metric can be found below. This chart decomposes the metric so you can see how much points are contributing to the score versus minutes.

Full results:

Rank	Team	# Players Injured	Injury Score	Points Component	Minutes Component
1	UCLA	3	100.0	50.0	50.0
2	Houston	2	81.0	45.5	35.5
3	SE Missouri State	2	64.4	25.8	38.7
4	Miami	1	62.6	33.5	29.1
5	Xavier	3	58.5	29.8	28.8
6	Texas A&M-CC	1	56.8	30.5	26.3
7	Kansas	3	56.4	26.6	29.8
8	Tennessee	1	53.0	26.4	26.6
9	Missouri	3	42.9	19.3	23.6
10	Virginia	1	42.0	19.2	22.8
11	Iona	2	36.3	17.5	18.8
12	Memphis	1	33.5	16.5	17.0
13	Kentucky	1	31.8	12.9	18.9
14	Kent State	1	31.2	12.8	18.4
15	Baylor	1	30.5	14.9	15.6
16	NC State	2	27.9	9.6	18.2
17	Arizona State	2	27.2	12.2	15.1
18	Princeton	1	21.8	10.4	11.5
19	Indiana	3	21.3	10.6	10.6
20	Grand Canyon	1	18.7	9.3	9.4
21	West Virginia	2	18.5	9.2	9.3
22	Northwestern	2	18.4	7.2	11.2
23	Arkansas	1	15.5	8.2	7.3
24	USC	1	11.9	6.1	5.9
25	Utah State	1	11.2	3.8	7.4
26	Pittsburgh	1	9.0	4.7	4.2
27	Penn State	1	7.8	2.6	5.2
28	Boise State	1	5.6	2.5	3.1
29	Auburn	1	4.9	2.0	2.9
30	Nevada	1	4.5	2.8	1.7
31	Marquette	1	0.4	0.0	0.4
32	Drake	1	0.3	0.3	0.0

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Potential Upsets

Upsets are one of the best parts of March Madness. Looking at recent injuries to key players may help us predict potential upsets. As a quick check for potential upsets, we can look at our Injury Scores. I classify a potential upset as a team that has a high Injury Score (>30) and a seed that is usually susceptible to upsets (seeds 5-8). The following table gives the teams that fit this criteria:

Team	Seed	Injury Score	Opponent	Opponent Seed	Opponent Injury Score
Miami	5	62.6	Drake	12	0.3
Missouri	7	42.9	Utah State	10	11.2
Memphis	8	33.5	Florida Atlantic	9	0.0
Kentucky	6	31.8	Providence	11	0.0

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Note: This is a very simple check for upsets that is entirely based off relative injury status of each team. If you ask me, Memphis in particular is unlikely to get upset (despite injuries) given that they just upset the AP #1 team in their conference tournament.

Conclusion

I hope that this article helps people take a more objective approach to player injuries while filling out their brackets. Simply looking up and counting the number of injured players is insufficient to properly account for injuries. Consider that Indiana has 3 injured players compared to just 1 for Miami. However, those 3 Indiana players only combine for 5.5% of the team’s scoring this year. On the other hand, the injured Miami player accounts for over 17% of his team’s points this year.

A composite score gives us a more holistic approach to injuries and predicting their impact. This score indicates that UCLA, Houston, SE Missouri State, Miami, and Xavier seem to be the most impacted by injuries going into the tournament.

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Player Data

A couple of readers have requested full data of player injuries. Below is a table of all injuries (as of 3/13 on Rotowire) to tourney teams, as well as stats for each injured player.

Team	Player	GP	MPG	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	TO	FG%	3P%
Arizona State	Marcus Bagley F	2	28.5	12.5	4.0	1.5	0.0	0.5	2.5	31.8	33.3
Arizona State	Austin Nunez G	28	16.3	4.5	1.1	0.9	0.7	0.0	1.2	41.5	37.7
Arkansas	Trevon Brazile F	9	27.1	11.8	6.0	1.0	1.0	1.2	2.2	48.1	37.9
Auburn	Chance Westry G	11	9.3	2.5	0.7	1.0	0.7	0.2	0.8	31.6	0.0
Baylor	Langston Love G	29	17.0	6.6	2.2	0.8	0.4	0.1	0.7	43.2	36.4
Boise State	Sadraque NgaNga G	17	6.5	2.0	1.5	0.3	0.2	0.0	0.5	48.3	36.4
Drake	Issa Samake F	1	12.0	8.0	7.0	2.0	2.0	2.0	1.0	57.1	0.0
Grand Canyon	Jovan Blacksher Jr. G	12	27.7	10.7	2.3	2.4	1.5	0.3	1.5	39.0	24.4
Houston	Marcus Sasser G	33	31.1	17.1	2.8	3.2	1.7	0.2	1.6	43.9	38.3
Houston	Ramon Walker Jr. G	10	15.2	2.9	2.5	0.4	0.2	0.0	0.6	35.7	26.7
Indiana	Xavier Johnson G	11	25.1	9.9	3.3	4.9	1.2	0.0	2.8	41.5	37.0
Indiana	Logan Duncomb C	9	5.9	2.9	1.7	0.2	0.1	0.6	0.3	75.0	0.0
Indiana	Anthony Leal G	10	2.3	0.2	0.2	0.1	0.1	0.0	0.1	0.0	0.0
Iona	Quinn Slazinski F	7	26.6	11.3	5.7	1.9	0.6	0.3	1.7	42.6	29.0
Iona	Cruz Davis G	23	19.3	6.7	1.4	1.0	0.7	0.3	1.1	41.9	31.7
Kansas	Kevin McCullar Jr. G	32	30.7	10.7	7.1	2.3	2.0	0.7	2.1	43.5	29.5
Kansas	Cam Martin F	4	2.5	1.8	0.5	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	75.0	100.0
Kansas	Kyle Cuffe Jr. G	2	3.0	0.0	0.5	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Kent State	Giovanni Santiago G	23	26.9	7.5	1.8	1.7	1.1	0.2	0.9	40.0	37.9
Kentucky	Sahvir Wheeler G	21	28.5	7.7	2.3	5.6	0.9	0.1	1.9	41.7	36.6
Marquette	Zach Wrightsil F	3	8.7	1.3	1.7	0.7	0.3	0.0	1.3	33.3	0.0
Memphis	Keonte Kennedy G	25	23.0	9.2	2.6	0.8	1.2	0.1	1.0	46.1	38.1
Miami	Norchad Omier F	32	28.5	13.6	9.7	1.3	1.0	1.3	2.0	59.1	33.3
Missouri	Isiaih Mosley G	14	19.9	9.6	2.0	2.5	1.1	0.4	2.4	46.3	30.6
Missouri	Tre Gomillion G	24	16.9	4.8	2.8	1.6	0.9	0.1	0.9	48.9	35.3
Missouri	Kaleb Brown G	11	7.8	0.8	0.4	0.5	0.5	0.1	0.7	44.4	20.0
NC State	Dusan Mahorcic F	10	20.7	8.7	6.6	1.2	0.6	0.7	1.2	64.3	0.0
NC State	Greg Gantt F	22	17.6	2.0	4.5	0.4	0.9	0.5	0.5	42.9	28.6
Nevada	K.J. Hymes F	4	16.5	9.0	4.5	0.5	0.3	3.0	0.5	66.7	100.0
Northwestern	Julian Roper II G	15	21.5	4.4	3.7	1.1	0.7	0.3	0.7	45.3	42.1
Northwestern	Luke Hunger F	6	6.5	2.7	1.3	0.2	0.0	0.0	0.2	42.9	50.0
Penn State	Caleb Dorsey F	16	12.0	2.3	2.2	0.4	0.4	0.2	0.5	37.8	33.3
Pittsburgh	John Hugley IV F	8	18.3	8.0	3.6	0.8	0.4	0.8	2.0	47.8	50.0
Princeton	Deven Austin G	22	15.2	5.4	2.5	0.6	0.6	0.5	1.0	51.2	57.9
SE Missouri State	Aquan Smart G	31	24.9	7.5	3.1	2.2	1.5	0.4	2.4	36.3	29.0
SE Missouri State	Kobe Clark F	19	30.0	6.6	8.7	2.6	1.5	1.2	1.9	37.1	25.0
Tennessee	Zakai Zeigler G	30	28.7	10.7	2.7	5.4	2.0	0.2	2.3	37.5	31.1
Texas A&M-CC	Terrion Murdix G	31	27.6	13.4	4.3	5.4	2.3	0.2	2.2	48.9	34.3
UCLA	Jaylen Clark G	30	30.5	13.0	6.0	1.9	2.6	0.3	1.2	48.1	32.9
UCLA	Adem Bona F	32	23.0	7.8	5.4	0.8	0.6	1.7	1.3	66.9	0.0
UCLA	Evan Manjikian F	2	1.5	1.5	0.5	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	50.0	50.0
USC	Vincent Iwuchukwu F	14	13.8	5.4	2.5	0.3	0.1	1.0	1.1	50.9	0.0
Utah State	Rylan Jones G	13	19.7	4.2	1.3	3.3	0.8	0.1	1.2	36.7	35.7
Virginia	Ben Vander Plas F	29	24.8	7.4	4.6	1.4	0.8	0.4	0.7	41.2	30.3
West Virginia	Mohamed Wague F	28	10.7	4.1	3.1	0.3	0.4	0.5	0.7	74.2	0.0
West Virginia	Josiah Davis G	6	1.5	0.8	0.3	0.2	0.0	0.0	0.3	33.3	0.0
Xavier	Zach Freemantle F	22	28.5	15.2	8.1	2.9	0.9	0.7	2.6	58.5	63.6
Xavier	Kam Craft G	14	7.1	2.8	1.6	0.3	0.2	0.1	0.7	50.0	35.3
Xavier	KyKy Tandy G	22	10.5	2.2	0.8	0.9	0.5	0.1	0.5	30.4	26.5

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Which March Madness Teams are Most Injured? (2023)

This article is outdated. Please refer to my updated article for the 2024 Tournament.

Total Season Minutes (%)

Total Season Points (%)

Composite Injury Score

Potential Upsets

Conclusion

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Player Data

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