Who's the hottest team in the Final Four? It looks like North Carolina, but my assessment may be affected by the fact that I just spent last weekend watching the Tar Heels in Memphis. I turned to the efficiency numbers for a second opinion, plotting out each of the four teams' efficiency margins for their past three NCAA tournament games (throwing out the first round because, well, a UNC-Radford or UConn-Chattanooga rout just blows up the stats) and found that, efficiency-wise, it is the Heels:

North Carolina
Opponent    Poss  OffPPP   DefPPP   EM 
LSU         68    1.241    1.034   .207 
Gonzaga     78    1.254    0.986   .268 
Oklahoma    65    1.115    0.929   .186 
Total       211                     .223

UConn
Opponent    Poss  OffPPP   DefPPP   EM 
Texas A&M   66    1.400    1.005   .395    
Purdue      70    1.025    0.854   .171    
Missouri    75    1.085    0.994   .091    
Total       211                    .213

Villanova
Opponent    Poss  OffPPP   DefPPP   EM 
UCLA        73    1.219    0.945   .274    
Duke        74    1.042    0.731   .311    
Pitt        67    1.171    1.141   .030    
Total       214                    .210

Michigan State
Opponent    Poss  OffPPP   DefPPP   EM 
USC         68    1.084    1.010   .074   
Kansas      67    1.006    0.931   .075   
Louisville  56    1.135    0.922   .213   
Total       191                    .115

What we learned from the table above:

• Carolina has been the steadiest team, dominating in each of the past three rounds, while each of the other Final Four clubs has had a close call -- or, at least, one game where the Efficiency Margin was less that 0.10 points per possession.

• UConn started out as the hottest team, blitzing Chattanooga and then Texas A&M in the second round, but the Huskies have been coming back down to earth as the competition has gotten stronger.

• Michigan State, meanwhile, has been the least-hot team between the second round and Elite Eight, but the Spartans played their strongest basketball in the Elite Eight against Louisville. They could be coming to life at the right time.

• Villanova put on the best, single-game defensive performance of any Final Four team when it dismantled Duke in the Sweet 16. The Blue Devils were held to just 0.731 points per possession. For comparison, North Carolina, in its Sweet 16 game against Gonzaga, let the Zags score 0.986 points per possession.