16 Seed update for Friday

[Marsh01]

Again thanks to GothamCuse for the work on this as well:

Well it happened ysterday. Huge upset in the Southland last night. Top seed UT Arlington gets slaughtered by 20 points by McNeese State. This means that now this will push LIU-Brooklyn and its star PG Jason Brickman up into 15 seed land. See seed grid, notes, and bottom line below.
THE NEW SEED GRID
15- Loyola (MD)
15- Lehigh
15- Detroit
15- LIU Brooklyn
-------------------
16- Southland Champ (probably Lamar)
16- UNC Asheville
16- MEAC Champ (prob. Norfolk State)
16- America East Champ (Vermont or Stony Brook)
16- SWAC Champ (prob. Miss. Valley St.)
16- Western Kentucky
NOTES: Still have to watch the teams that get these small conf. titles but it won't change the conferences that are getting the 16 seeds. The leagues are locked. But if McNeese State beats Lamar in Southland final, they could possibly get a play-in and then someone else would move up. Norfolk State, with a 133 RPI and a win over Drexel, could get a regular 16 in that case and perhaps be sent to Pittsburgh to face us. But I think Lamar is winning that Southland title and getting shipped to Omaha. It's now 90-95 percent that we get UNC Asheville.
BOTTOM LINE:
Pittsburgh: 1 Syracuse vs. 16 UNC Asheville
Omaha: 1 Kansas vs. 16 Lamar
Louisville: 1 Kentucky vs. 16 Miss. Valley vs. 16 Stony Brook winner
Greensboro: 1 UNC vs. 16 MEAC champ vs. 16 Western Ky winner

 

[iommi]

Marsh: can you bump your UNC Asheville thread...I believe you offered a scouting report. Thanks.

 

[Marsh01]

Marsh: can you bump your UNC Asheville thread...I believe you offered a scouting report. Thanks.

Here you go

UNC-Asheville Bulldogs (24-9) Team Scouting Report

Conference: Big south – 2012 Regular Season Champions (16-2)

RPI – 114
SOS – 219
Opponent SOS – 254
0-1 vs. Top 25 RPI
0-2 vs. Top 50 RPI
0-5 vs. Top 100 RPI

Notable Opponents:

North Carolina (lost 91-75)
NC State (lost 84-75)
Uconn (lost 73-63)
Tennessee (lost 72-68)

Season Summary:

Preseason UNC Asheville was picked to win the Big South Conference and won it by 4 games over Coastal Carolina. The only teams in conference to beat them were Charleston Southern and Coastal Carolina.

They finished the season with a school record 24 wins. They played a very strong non conference schedule which included many BCS teams however the only team they were able to beat was lowly Utah. They also played Ohio in a bracketbusters game and got blown out 81-62

They advanced to the NCAA tournament by winning their conference tournament. The Bulldogs had little trouble with any of their opponents in the Big south tournament as they beat High Point, Charleston Southern and finally VMI to capture the automatic bid on their home floor. It was the second straight year that they have won their conference tournament. Last year in the NCAA tournament they faced Arkansas Little Rock in one of the “play-in” games defeating the Trojans 81-77. They then advanced to play #1 seed Pitt in their first round game. They hung with the top seeded Panthers for about 30 minutes before eventually losing 71-54 and thus ending their season.


Team Summary:

UNC-Asheville’s roster is dominated by upper classmen. Four of their top 6 players are seniors and the other 2 are juniors. Their top 5 scorers all average in double figures. This team was 5th in the country in PPG averaging 81.2 points per contest. They also share the ball well and finished 8th in assists per game dishing out 16.6. They are a good shooting team and have a .484 FG% per game which ranks them 16th nationally. They are an average rebounding team averaging 34.7 RPG. The one thing this team can do is shoot FT’s. They are one of the top FT shooting teams in the country shooting a whopping .762% from the FT line. They have 5 players averaging over 75% and 2 players who average over 85%

This is a VERY small team who plays a predominately 3 guard starting 5. They do not start a player above 6’5”. The fact that they are in the top 50% of rebounding teams in the country with such little height is pretty remarkable. They average 11 offensive rebounds per game.

They are not a great three point shooting team despite playing so many perimeter players. They only have one player who averages over 40% from three point range and that is one of their reserves Quinard Jackson and he is only 9-20 for the season. In their conference tournament they went a combined 12-55 from behind the arc which only equates to about 22%.

Defensively they do average about 8 steals a game however they only block about 3 shots per game. They are a team that takes care of the ball while averaging just under 13 turnovers per contest.

They do have decent rebounding guards who average 3.3 RPG respectively and their 2 forwards average 6.3 and 6.6 RPG.

Player Summary:

Their best player is senior guard Matt Dickey. He was the Big South’s pre-season player of the year and ended up winning that award at the end of the season. He is a 6’1” guard who averages 16.5 ppg, and dishes out 3.6 assists per game. He is a decent three point shooter who has made 61 shots from behind the arc this season and averages .381% from three point range. He also averages 3.4 RPG and 3.6 APG. He is also a deadly foul shooter averaging close to 87% from the charity stripe.

Dickey’s backcourt mate is senior 6’1”guard JP Primm. He averages 15.3 PPG, 3.3 RPG and 4.2 APG. He has made 71 three pointers this season. Much like Dailey Primm is also a very good FT shooter at 84%.

Asheville’s third starting player is a combo senior G- Chris Stephenson. He is listed at 6’4” and averages 13.1 PPG. He is a decent rebounder for his size averaging over 6 boards a game. He has also made 20 three pointers this season. He has committed 3 fouls per game and needs to stay on the floor for the Bulldogs.

Starting at one of the 2 frontcourt positions is junior Jeremy Atkinson. He is listed at 6’4” and averages 11.7 PPG. He is their best rebounder who averages 6.6 RPG and has also made 14 three point shots this season. He also is a very good FT shooter who averages close to 75% from the line.

Rounding out their starting 5 is senior Quinard Jackson. He is listed at 6’5” and averages 5.1 PPG. He also averages 3.3 RPG. As far as percentage wise he is their best three point shooter but he has only attempted 20 three point shots this season while making nearly half of them at 9.

Their top reserve is junior G- Jaron Lane. He is listed at 6’4” and averages 11.3 PPG. He also averages 4 RPG and shoots it at almost 80% from the charity stripe. He has only made 12 three pointers this season while attempting 41.


Final Summary:

UNC Asheville is a heavy upper classmen team that certainly is no stranger to winning big games. They are the 2 time Big South Champions and will be playing in their second straight NCAA tournament. They also will not be intimidated by playing a #1 seed given their strong non conference schedule coupled with having played against a #1 seed in last years NCAA Tournament.

This team likes to score and will not be a team that will milk the shot clock on every possession. Given the lack of size on this team they will struggle against any team with size, especially on the interior. They certainly need to make shots, especially from behind the arc and that really isn’t a forte of this team. They need the right matchup in the NCAA tourney and will struggle to compete with a team like Kentucky, Syracuse or North Carolina because of the size and length of these 3 teams. In their one game against UNC this season (which was a home game for the Bulldogs) they were able to keep it respectable despite being dominated on the glass. They did make 8 three point shots and took advantage of 17 Tar Heel turnovers. This was only the second game of the season for both teams.

I do not see this team being a problem for any #1 seed as long as the #1 seed does not let this team hang around into the second half. If they are able to make shots and rebound then they may put a scare into a #1 seed. They do have experience on their side however. They are going to need it.

 

[iommi]

Thanks, Marsh...sounds like a good matchup in that they play up-tempo and are small...though sometimes Melo struggles inside against small interior players.

 

[Marsh01]

Thanks, Marsh...sounds like a good matchup in that they play up-tempo and are small...though sometimes Melo struggles inside against small interior players.

I really do not think that this team will be able to keep it close for long against us. The game against UNC that they played was a bit misleading. UNC had just played on the boat against MSU and I believe took a red eye back to Chapel Hill. then 2 days later played Asheville on ther home floor. That was their super bowl. UNC was up 19 with 6 minutes left and basically went through the motions most of that game.

This game should make no Syracuse fan nervous. It may be close for a while but given their style of play I could see us make one of our patented 19-0 runs and blow the game open.