2015 NCAA Tournament for March 17: Who, what, where, and when
By Paul Jordan
Christmas is today for fans of college basketball as the 2015 NCAA Tournament gets underway. Well, maybe not Christmas, but let’s say Christmas Eve maybe? The one and done season is here with the first of the “First Four” games in Dayton, Ohio. All of tonight’s action takes place on truTV, so let’s look at tonight’s games.
6:40 PM
#16 MANHATTAN JASPERS 19-13
#16 HAMPTON PIRATES 16-17
Live Feed
South Bound & Down
To the victor goes the spoils of playing the top ranked and undefeated Kentucky Wildcats on Thursday in Louisville.
Jaspers coach Steve Masiello knows what that will be like very well as he played for Kentucky under Rick Pitino and later coached at Louisville under his mentor. And last year, Manahattan’s opponent in the NCAA was Louisville. Like their head coach, the Jaspers are very tough and will back down from no one. The Jaspers play a very tough man to man defense which turns the ball over a lot. This team allows opponents the 23rd shortest possession time in the NCAA, meaning that their opponents either turn the ball over quickly or get an easy basket. The Jaspers also send their opponents to the foul line on about 52.3% of their possessions. Emmy Andujar will be the best player on the floor and he averages 16.5 PPG and 7.6 RPG. The Jaspers are aggressive on offense and get to the foul line a good bit.
This could be a low scoring game as Hampton is actually a pretty good defensive team and loves it grind it out. They are good at interior defense and make it tough to score inside and force their opponents to take bad shots. On the other side of the ball, this is one of the worst offensive teams in the field as they struggle to score and shoot just 29.2% from 3-point range. The key to this game will be how much Dwight Meikle is able to play. HE missed the MAAC Tournament and when healthy, the 6’8 swingman hits 52% of his shots. If he can’t go, Brian Darden, the Pirates only real 3-point threat at 35% should have the green light all day long.
9:10 PM ESTIMATE
#11 BYU 25-9
#11 OLE MISS 20-12
This should be a fun game as both teams like to score. BYU comes into the tournament with the #2 scoring offense at 81.3 points a game. Tyler Haws is the leading scorer in BYU history (ahead of Jimmer and Danny Ainge) and he is a Wooden Award Finalist. He averages 21.9 points a game and can fill it up from outside and also does a fantastic job of getting to the charity stripe. Kyle Collinsworth has five triple-doubles this year and averages 13.5 PPG, 8.6 RPG and 5.8 APG. Chase Fischer averages 13 points a game and has a game this season with 10 3-pointers. As you can guess, this is not a good defensive team and most of their games resemble a track meet. The front court is nothing to write home about since this team lost Nate Austin for the year.
The Rebels don’t shoot as well as The Cougars but they average 73 points a game. The Rebels were a lock for a higher seed and even took Kentucky to overtime, but have collapsed down the stretch, losing four of five. Hence the “First Four” status. The Rebels are led by Stefan Moody (16.3 PPG) and Jarvis Summers (12.4). Summers has been something of a mystery this year as his scoring has gone down almost five points a game from 17.3 and his 3-point shooting decreased from 42.3% to 26.1%. The Rebels don’t like playing a lot of defense either although their front court of Sebastian Saez and MJ Rhett are a little better than BYU. Ladarius White, who averages 11.2 PPG and hits 41.4% of his 3-pointers could have a huge game. This will be the type of game that makes you wish Marshall Henderson was still around.
Next: Nirvana for the Big Blue Nation
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