5 Cinderella teams - The Athletic - Murray State top of list

[Cheeks]

Not sure we should bother playing this game at this point.....by the way, Vermont over FSU is another of the five.  Below is the MU vs MSU portion



Murray State (No. 12 seed vs. Marquette)
(27-4; Ohio Valley Conference champions; KenPom offensive efficiency rank: 41; KenPom defensive efficiency rank: 81)

The easiest choice in this space, the Racers will be a very popular — probably the most popular — upset pick in your bracket contest because Ja Morant has been on "SportsCenter," like, 200 times this season. But don't let that be the reason you shy away from picking them.

Not only do they have Morant, an electric talent projected to be a top-three NBA Draft pick, they also possess an efficient offense that hits the glass and doesn't turn the ball over too much. Murray isn't going to blow away teams with its size, but it does have a decent front line at 6-5, 6-8 and 6-9, with some depth behind it. Morant pulls all the strings, while freshman Tevin Brown and senior Shaq Buchanan can get it going from distance. Buchanan scored 20 or more points four times this season, including 21 at Auburn, and made multiple 3s in a game on 14 occasions.

The best evidence of Murray State's potential is its big win over Belmont in the Ohio Valley title game and how closely it played the only two power-conference opponents on its schedule, Alabama and Auburn. The Racers lost both games on the road by a combined 11 points. Their only other two losses came against Belmont and Jacksonville State, their primary competitors in their league.

[warriorchick]

[skianth16]

When a key talking point is that one of their starters hit "multiple threes" X number of times in games this year (against the #220 SOS, no less) it really feels like someone is stretching to find positives. And then throwing out a 6-5 player in the front court? These talking points are actually making me feel much better about this matchup.

[ATL MU Warrior]

When a key talking point is that one of their starters hit "multiple threes" X number of times in games this year (against the #220 SOS, no less) it really feels like someone is stretching to find positives. And then throwing out a 6-5 player in the front court? These talking points are actually making me feel much better about this matchup.

Exactly.  That write-up sucked.