I hate it when people abuse statistics. It was only a minor for me, but at one point they figured prominently into my role as a program evaluator. A 1% difference can be significant depending on the numbers and context, just as a 10% difference could mean little. If the numbers above were in the 100-150 range this would be much ado about nothing. In reality they are at a range where for many a game just a two foul average difference between teams can mean the difference between 1 and 1, double bonuses and foul trouble. They are in a range where one team's opponents may be consistently sitting on the bench earlier due to foul trouble than another.
I'm not inclined to blame the refs in terms of "unfair" calls. Because of the number of games involved that should be factored out. If the numbers were broken into home and away games perhaps something surfaces, perhaps not. What you can conclude from this, despite the misleading 1% difference you framed it in, is that teams like Baylor, Notre Dame and particularly Tennessee are quite adept at drawing fouls in comparison to a second tier of teams, with Tennessee being the best of all. At almost 20 per game, versus 2-3 per game less, that means many times where Tennessee has gained an early advantage due to their ability to draw fouls. The UConn men were once very adept at the same thing so I'm not going to complain too much about it; it just bugs me when people pull a fast one with statistics.
