After losing to No. 1 Duke 74-70 in the ACC Tournament finals, No. 10 Virginia was named a three-seed in the upcoming NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament — facing Horizon League champion Wright State Friday at the Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia, Pa., before facing one of No. 25 Tennessee, SMU or one-loss Miami (OH) Sunday at the same venue.
Should the Cavaliers (29-5, 15-3 ACC) win both first-weekend games, they will play their second weekend in Chicago.
The 14-seed Raiders (23-11, 15-5 Horizon), coming off a Horizon League title win over Detroit Mercy, will face Virginia having won seven of their last eight games. Led by second-year Coach Clint Sergent, they are a team that thrives at getting to the rim — attempting 43.1 percent of their shots there and making over 60 percent of them. They do not turn the ball over often, with their biggest difference-maker being sophomore guard TJ Burch, who averages 12.3 points, 3.5 assists and 2.5 steals per game.
The biggest knock against Wright State is that it has not played a particularly hard schedule. Facing only one Quad 1 opponent and two from Quad 2, it is winless through those three games, struggling to score efficiently in all of them. They are also winless against any team ranked above them on KenPom.
Should the Cavaliers beat Wright State, they will face the winner of Friday’s match between the six-seeded Volunteers (22-11, 11-7 SEC) and one of the Mustangs (20-13, 8-10 ACC) and the RedHawks (31-1, 18-0 MAC). The latter two will play in the First Four Wednesday to see who will advance to face Tennessee.
The Volunteers, the highest seeded of the three potential second-round matchups, was knocked out of the SEC tournament Friday by No. 22 Vanderbilt. Coached by Rick Barnes, they have plenty of positional size — and boast the highest offensive rebounding percentage in Division I, hauling in on average 16 per game. Like many of Barnes’ squads, Tennessee has an excellent defense, with opposing teams shooting a measly 30.6 percent from three against them.
A majority of their offense comes inside the arc, where star senior guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie excels. Gillespie, who played two years at Belmont and one at Maryland before transferring to Knoxville, averages 18 points, 5.5 assists and 2.1 steals — ranking eighth, second and third in the SEC in those respective categories. The Tennessee frontcourt, made up of freshman forward Nate Ament, junior forward J.P. Estrella and senior center Felix Okpara, has also been one of the best in the country of late, with Ament especially making major strides as a scorer as the season progressed.
The First Four matchup between SMU and Miami (OH) will be very interesting, as both teams have question marks attached to them that could work in their favor against a Volunteers side that is 2-4 in its last six games.
SMU would be a rematch for Virginia. The Cavaliers eked out a four-point road win against the Mustangs in January — a game in which Virginia graduate guard Malik Thomas scored 23 points and logged 11 rebounds en route to a 72-68 final score.
The Mustangs, under Coach Andy Enfield, proceeded to then be hit-or-miss in conference play, struggling to build any win streak before losing their final four games of the regular season by a combined 45 points. They beat Syracuse in the first round of the ACC tournament, but lost to No. 24 Louisville in the second round, a team they had beaten when the two faced up in Dallas less than one month prior.
Despite their recent woes, which have manifested especially on the defensive side, SMU is a competent offensive team with a potent backcourt and two rock-solid anchors in the paint. Senior guards Boopie Miller and Jaron Pierre Jr. are both excellent scorers, averaging 19.2 and 17.6 points respectively, while sophomore center Samet Yigitoglu and freshman center Jaden Toombs are excellent rebounders and play finishers, while also being high-level interior defenders.
The Mustangs’ Wednesday opponent, Miami (OH), was a marquee storyline of this college basketball season, remaining undefeated until a shocking MAC Tournament loss to Massachusetts. Their 31 straight wins was the best win streak in MAC history, and they were the only team in Division I with an undefeated regular season. Coached by Travis Steele, they have an extremely efficient offense with a deep arsenal of high-percentage, high-volume shooters.
The RedHawks’ record does speak for itself, but SMU will be their first high-major opponent all season. They went 3-0 in Quad 2 games, but have been shaky of late, winning three straight games by exactly two points before losing to the Minutemen (17-16, 7-11 MAC) by four. Still, with their entire starting lineup averaging double-digits points and six members of their rotation shooting 37 percent or more from three, they are a team accustomed to winning and certainly capable of winning games in the tournament.
Should the Cavaliers go 2-0 in the opening weekend, they will travel to Chicago for the Sweet 16 and, with another win, the Elite Eight. In the Sweet Sixteen they would face one of No. 7 Iowa State, Kentucky, Santa Clara and Tennessee State. The other half of the regional is headlined by No. 3 Michigan, with other marquee teams including No. 15 Alabama, No. 16 Texas Tech, Georgia and Saint Louis.
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