I was looking at the Pomeroy Top 50 list and noticed that very few teams had really fast tempos. Not sure if it is an aberration just for this year but look how few of the Top 70 teams in Pomeroy rank in the Top 50 of Tempo....
#8 North Carolina (4th in Tempo)
#18 UNLV (32nd in Tempo)
#22 Marquette (38th in Tempo)
#35 Brigham Young (9th in Tempo)
#49 Iona (21st in Tempo)
#64 Washington (23rd in Tempo)
You would figure just randomly in the Top 70 there would be at least 10 teams in the tops in Tempo (since 70 of 345 is 20.2% and 20.2% of 50 is about 10). Yet there are only six.
Looks like pushing the Tempo is a hard way to win (at least this year). Kudos for Buzz for making it work.
Adding to this... theory dictates that better teams should force a faster tempo. If you are a better team, playing more possessions increases your opportunity to prove you are a better team. I've long felt that teams playing a very slow tempo are more right for upsets in the NCAA (ha - Wisconsin!).
However, I'm not seeing a pattern.
(http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/ee41/roblowe14/rankvstempo.png)
So what you are saying is that there is more than one way to skin a pig.