The State Of Texas Leads Nation with 89 Players In NCAA Tournament; Ohio Ninth Overall With 35

By Eric Seger on March 15, 2016 at 7:15 pm
Outlining the location the talent in the 2016 NCAA Tournament came from.
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Ohio State isn't in the NCAA Tournament, but the state in which it resides is well represented in the Big Dance.

States With At Least 10 Players in 2016 NCAA Tournament Field
STATE/COUNTRY # OF PLAYERS PCT. OF TOTAL
TEXAS 89 8.76
CALIFORNIA 71 6.99
NORTH CAROLINA 54 5.31
NEW YORK 52 5.12
ILLINOIS 49 4.82
INDIANA 40 3.94
NEW JERSEY 40 3.94
PENNSYLVANIA 39 3.84
OHIO 35 3.44
FLORIDA 34 3.35
GEORGIA 32 3.15
MARYLAND 30 2.95
WISCONSIN 29 2.85
VIRGINIA 28 2.76
MICHIGAN 25 2.46
IOWA 24 2.36
TENNESSEE 21 2.07
CANADA 21 2.07
LOUISIANA 19 1.87
KENTUCKY 17 1.67
OKLAHOMA 13 1.28
MISSOURI 12 1.18
COLORADO 12 1.18
MASSACHUSETTS 12 1.18
KANSAS 12 1.18
CONNECTICUT 11 1.08
MINNESOTA 10 0.98

A total of 35 players from Ohio are among the 68 teams in the 2016 NCAA Tournament, which is set to tipped at approximately 6:40 p.m. Tuesday at University of Dayton Arena.

A pair of 16 seeds, Florida Gulf Coast and Fairleigh Dickinson, occupy the first matchup of this year's slate of games for the right to play North Carolina, the No. 1 seed in the East Region. No. 11 seeds Vanderbilt and Wichita State are scheduled to follow at around 9:10 p.m., with the winner taking on sixth-seeded Arizona in the South Region.

Texas leads the way with 89 players calling The Lone Star State home, or 8.76 percent of the 1,016 listed among the rosters listed on each team's official website. Note: The figure includes walk-on players.

The large batch of Texas talent in the tournament is no surprise. It is tied with six other states for most schools from one state in the field — California, Indiana, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.

There are 19 states without an NCAA Tournament team in the field.

The United States of America, District of Columbia and 37 other countries are represented among the field. Players from as far away as Lithuania, Zambia, Serbia and Australia are set to lace up their sneakers and don the colors of their respective universities once the First Round began Tuesday.

The largest international contingent in the tournament is from Canada, where 21 players (or 2.07 percent) are from. Three states in the continental United States did not produce a single player on an NCAA Tournament team: Maine, North Dakota and Vermont. Hawaii sent three players to the tournament, while Alaska sent two.

Three states — New Mexico, Rhode Island and Wyoming — each put one player in the field of 68. Twenty different countries exported a single player into the Big Dance as well.

Two teams have double-digit representation from their home state on their roster: Texas leads the way with 11 players from the second-largest state in the country by size, while Purdue lists 10 players from the state of Indiana.

Sean Miller's Arizona Wildcats also have 10 players from a single state among those listed on their roster, but they hail from California.

The second-highest international contingent behind Canada is the Bahamas, which sent seven players to the NCAA Tournament. Next-highest is Germany and Serbia with six, then Australia, Nigeria and Senegal each had four.


The remaining states and countries represented in the 2016 NCAA Tournament:

  • 9 Players: Alabama, Arizona, Oregon;
  • 8: South Carolina;
  • 7: Utah, Bahamas, Nevada;
  • 6: Arkansas, Washington, DC, Germany, Serbia;
  • 5: West Virginia, Washington, South Dakota, Montana, Mississippi, Delaware;
  • 4: Idaho, New Hampshire, Australia, Nigeria, Senegal;
  • 3: Belgium, Lithuania, Nebraska, Hawaii;
  • 2: Alaska, New Zealand, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovakia, Ghana, Italy, Egypt;
  • 1: New Mexico, Rhode Island, Wyoming, Ukraine, Guinea, Israel, Spain, Austria, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Estonia, Kenya, Netherlands, Montenegro, Argentina, Poland, Kosovo, Sweden, England, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Croatia, Zambia;
  • 0: Maine, North Dakota, Vermont.
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