KSR College takes a quick glance at today's teams

by:Ally Tucker•03/15/12

KSRCollege.com would like to bring you all a quick glance at each of the teams participating in this afternoon’s 1st set of NCAA tournament games. Each of us at KSR College were randomly assigned NCAA tournament teams to cover for the duration of the tournament. At the conclusion of the selection show, we each compiled a brief summary of information about each of our teams. We will have a preview with a bit of background information on each team’s season/expectations before each block of games today and tomorrow.

Game 1: (6) Murray State vs. (11) Colorado St.

(Murray State by Chris Jones)

The Racers of Murray State somehow managed to enter the year as an unknown, become the only remaining unbeaten team in the country, and slip back to irrelevance all before conference tournaments even began. It wasn’t long after they felt the love from ESPN during their winning streak before they lost the attention and a top 10 ranking. The NCAA tournament is the perfect venue to remind the country why they used to be SportsCenter regulars.

Isaiah Canaan is one of the most dangerous guards in the country. His three point shooting ability could pose problems for any team in the tournament. The Racers also feature an experienced lineup, who share good chemistry and a feel for playing the game with each other.

(Colorado State by Meagan Matthews)

The Colorado State University Rams went 20-11 overall and 8-6 in the conference. The green, gold, and white Rams play extremely well at home going 14-1, but they play terribly away going 3-9. Throughout the season, one of the District Coach of the Year honorees, Coach Tim Miles, led his team to beat rivals like San Diego State, Texas Christian University (in double overtime), Nebraska, and New Mexico. Some bad losses include Duke (87-64) and San Diego State-once in the regular season and in the second round of the MWC tournament.

Junior guards Dorian Green and Wes Eikmeier, as well as junior forward Pierce Hornung (all three won all-conference awards) are key players that could propel CSU further into the tournament. They have not been invited to play in the NCAA tournament since 2003 nor have they ever played the Murray State Racers.

Game 2: (8) Kansas State vs. (9) Southern Miss

(Kansas State by John Burke)

The Kansas State Wildcats were a consistently solid team this year but as indicated by their seeding, they couldn’t turn the corner to greatness. The Michael Beasleys are capable of beating anyone and they displayed that throughout the season as they walloped Missouri 75-59 in January, beat Baylor 57-56 in February, then turned around to beat Missouri once more by 10 points in late February. K State even found their way up to #18 in the polls midway through the season. Kansas State is an interesting team. They quietly produced during the season but didn’t really turn any heads besides the surprising upsets over Missouri. Do they have what it takes to beat Southern Miss? Obviously. Do they have what it takes to beat Syracuse? No. The Wildcats are a very balanced team with 10 players that see court time on a regular basis and they are lead by an NBA talent in Junior Rodney McGruder but lack in offensive firepower as they have a bit of a drop after McGruder’s 15.4 ppg. The Wildcats struggle from the line as a team shooting only 66.7% They also are an average at best 34.2% from Three-point range. Here are there best wins and worst losses of this season.

I like this Kansas State team. They’ve got the makeup to pull upsets but I can’t see them making it past Syracuse. K State has an experienced front line but they have young guards that could crumble under the big lights. If the Wildcats find a way to start connecting from outside, however, watch out for a close game between them and Syracuse. Yes, I am discounting Southern Miss but I just don’t think this consistent Kansas State team will have a let down in the first round, sorry second (damn 68 team field). Essentially, Kansas State is your typical 8 seed. They had a decent season and should give the one seed a game but will probably come up a bit short. I’m calling 73-64. The one special thing about this team however is their fearless nature and upset ability as proven by wins over Missouri twice and Baylor once. Rodney McGruder and Will Spradling are the 3 point shooters on this team and McGruder is capable of going off from behind the arc. A huge McGruder performance is needed to get K State going offensively.

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(Southern Miss by Caroline Hall)

For the first time in 21 years SMU (SMU is Southern Methodist in Dallas, use Southern Miss) is going to the Big Dance. They have earned an at large bid as a number nine seed, which is the highest seed position in the schools history.

The players to watch from SMU are sophomore guard Neil Watson and Jonathan Mills. Watson is Second Team All-Conference USA and leads the Golden Eagles with 12.1 points and 4.5 assists. He’s also the second in Conference USA in assist-to-turnover ratio with 2.1 and is third in free-throw percentage. Mills was named to the third team All-Conference USA team, which makes him the third Golden Eagle to be named to the all-defensive team. He lead the team in rebounds eleven times and has a team-high four double-doubles. Mills is the 12th in Conference USA with 5.4 rebounds an outing.

Game 3: (4) Louisville vs. (13) Davidson

(Louisville by David Jackson)

Louisville enters the tournament with a 26-9 record (10-8in the Big East). The Cardinals are fresh off a Big East tournament championship and are currently ranked 23^rd in the nation. Senior Kyle Kuric (13 ppg) and junior Peyton Siva (9 ppg, 5.5 apg) lead the way for the Cards.

Rick Pitino is in his 11^th year as head coach of the Cardinals and has compiled a record of 258-99 in his time there. Pitino guided the 1996 Kentucky Wildcats to a National Championship and has only been to one Final Four since then with Louisville, in 2005.

(Davidson by Andrew Cassady)

Davidson has a real chance of knocking out Louisville in the first round for the third straight year, here’s why: The Wildcats accumulated a record of 25-7 en route to 1^st place in the Sothern League and capturing the Southern championship. Davidson is 12^th in the NCAA in ppg with 78.4 and 19^th in RPG with 38.9. The Wildcats biggest win of the year came at Kansas where they won by a score of 80-74. Davidson is ranked 63^rd in RPI and 169 SOS. They also had a few bad losses at Charlotte, at Samford, and at Charleston. This says they could beat or be beaten by anyone.

Davidson is lead by De’Mon Brooks and Jake Cohen. The deadly duo combine for 30 ppg and 12.3 rpg. They also shoot above 37% from behind the arc. The team is heralded for their three point ability but shoot 33.9%.

Game 4: (4) Wisconsin vs. (13) Montana

(Wisconsin by Jonathan Schuette)

Bo Ryan’s Badgers are the 4 seed in the East region and will take on the Big Sky Champion Montana Grizzlies. Wisconsin enters the postseason rated 6^th in the Kenpom.com ratings and 13^th in the LRMC. They are best known for their infuriatingly slow offense which averages 59 possessions a game, which rates them second to last in the nation (344th.) So far this season they have knocked off UNLV, Ohio State, and Indiana. I believe that they are under seeded and have what it takes to make a deep run in the tournament.

Wisconsin has one of the premier point guards in the nation, Jordan Taylor. Taylor has boasts an Offensive Rating of 113.2 while taking nearly 25% of his teams shots while in the game. That’s excellent! He also is shooting a respectable 35% from three and converts on 78% of his free throws. Wisconsin also presents a ton of unique matchup issues for many teams. For one, their 6’10’’ Center, Jared Berggren, is shooting 37% from three. There are not many teams that can matchup with that. As a team they are shooting a respectable 36% from three and do not turn the ball over on offense, that tells me they get the most out of every possession. Offense is not their claim to fame, though. They only shoot 46.6% from two, that’s good for 214^th in the nation. However, their defense is their bread and butter. They are second only to Kentucky in Effective Field Goal defense, giving up only 41.8% from the field. Their opponents are only hitting 28.9 percent of their threes and 41.3 percent of their twos against Wisconsin. This is a very underrated team that has the potential to make some serious noise in this tournament. I like them to go to the Sweet 16 beating Vanderbilt, possibly the Elite 8.

(Montana by John Wilmhoff)

The Montana Grizzlies find themselves in the NCAA Tournament for the 8th time in school history by winning the Big Sky regular season and tournament championship. The Grizzlies finished 25-6 overall and 15-1 in the conference.Montana’s only conference loss of the season was at the hands of Weber State (24-6, 14-2 Big Sky), a team that just narrowly missed an NCAA at-large bid. Montana lost the first meeting with Weber State by 16 points, but won the second meeting by 15 to clinch the regular season league title. In the third meeting, the Grizzlies topped Weber State by an impressive 19 points in the Big South championship game.

In the first round, Montana will face one of the top point guards in the country in Wisconsin’s Jordan Taylor, but facing a talented point guard is something that Montana is familiar with. After facing Weber State’s Damian Lillard three times, one of the five finalists for the Bob Cousy Award presented to the nation’s best point guard, the Grizzlies should be able to handle Taylor better than you may expect. Slowing down Taylor, along with a big game out of leading scorer Will Cherry, are the keys to Montana pulling off the unlikely upset of #4 seed Wisconsin.