MUScoop

Warriors take on the Wildcats in NCAA opener

Written by: noreply@blogger.com (TB)

Welcome back to March Madness. For the eighth consecutive season MU rah-rah is back in the thick of things, and for the second consective season the team earned mad respect from the Selection Committee by earning a 3 Seed.  The Big East Champions play the 14th-seeded Davidson Wildcats (26-7, Southern Conference Champions) on Thursday afternoon at approximately 2:10pm CT.  The game will appear on truTV.

More later in the week but this is a tough draw. As the guys at Paint Touches pointed out the Wildcats returned all five starters from last year’s NCAA tournament team (https://twitter.com/PaintTouches/status/313434717745725440) â€" a bunch that gave Louisville a scare before falling 69-62 in the first round (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/basketball/ncaa/men/gameflash/2012/03/15/78001_boxscore.html).

This is the second consecutive season that the Warriors earned a three seed. Does anybody remember what happened the last time MU was a three-seed, won its conference and lost in the first round of the conference tourney (https://twitter.com/MarquetteU/status/313450795272114176)?  Karma.  Believe.

Here are a few links to get you through the day:

• Mike Hunt at the J-S (http://www.jsonline.com/sports/goldeneagles/marquette-awarded-a-date-with-davidson-p596jce-198721181.html).
• Pete Thamel from CNNSI thinks Davidson is a good bet to beat the Warriors (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/-college-basketball-mens-tournament/news/20130318/ncaa-tournament-east-regional/).
• An MUScoop contributor who lives in the Carolinas (http://www.muscoop.com/index.php?topic=37141.0) and follows Davidson filed this report.
• The News & Observer points out that the two programs have not faced each other since the 1960s (http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/03/17/2759203/davidson-draws-marquette-in-first.html).
• The Charlotte Observer (http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/03/17/3921628/davidson-takes-on-marquette-in.html) points out that the Wildcats want to keep their rhythm going  … they have not lost since January.
• The Sports Exchange offers this quick preview of the Thursday tilt (http://www.4029tv.com/news/sports/Preview-Marquette-vs-Davidson/-/8897582/19353418/-/7643d3z/-/index.html).

Ken Pomeroy installed MU as a four-point favorite.  A quick look at the top line stats show some areas of strength and concern.

• Davidson is terrible at forcing turnovers.  MU has to take advantage of this and protect the ball given the trend lines we noted the other day (http://www.crackedsidewalks.com/2013/03/deconstructing-season-so-far.html).
• Davidson shoots the lights out. They sink 36.9% of their 3-pointers (nearly 8/game) while MU is just 83rd in the nation (9th in the Big East) at defending the trey, 31.8%.  Pat Connaughton, ugh.

Need a primer on the East Region? Check out Paint Touches (http://painttouches.com/2013/03/18/looking-over-the-tournaments-east-region/).

http://www.crackedsidewalks.com/2013/03/warriors-take-on-wildcats-in-ncaa-opener.html