south carolina under 123
total is really low, but its there for a reason imo. both teams are solid defensively, and both marteli and odom have no problem playing the game at a crawl if thats what it takes to win. neither is worried about style points, and thats a good thing because there isnt much 'style' on either roster. should see a lot of shot clock used on most possessions. st.joes has a poor team FT% but i dont think thats necessarily indicative of their ability to knock down FTs overall. its dwayne jones at 53% that kills them; if you take him out of the equation, saint joes makes 72% as a team instead 66%. (note to south carolina: foul that guy at any time). south carolina is bad all around from the line. 61% as a team, and only two guys on their entire roster shoot better than 66%. overall, just two solid defensive teams going at it for the nit title. only one team has shot better than 39% against st.joes in the entire tournament. south carolina held 2 potent offenses (maryland and unlv) to well below their average in their matchup (maryland scored just 67, unlv just 66) and for the tourney as a whole, south carolina allowing 66.5 ppg (and st.joes allowing just 52.6 ppg). just dont see anything that points to an over here. obviously if the refs are whistle-happy and get these teams into the bonus early, that low number might be in jeopardy, but both teams are perimeter-oriented and are content to shoot a lot of jumpers. this one should finish in the 100-teens.
total is really low, but its there for a reason imo. both teams are solid defensively, and both marteli and odom have no problem playing the game at a crawl if thats what it takes to win. neither is worried about style points, and thats a good thing because there isnt much 'style' on either roster. should see a lot of shot clock used on most possessions. st.joes has a poor team FT% but i dont think thats necessarily indicative of their ability to knock down FTs overall. its dwayne jones at 53% that kills them; if you take him out of the equation, saint joes makes 72% as a team instead 66%. (note to south carolina: foul that guy at any time). south carolina is bad all around from the line. 61% as a team, and only two guys on their entire roster shoot better than 66%. overall, just two solid defensive teams going at it for the nit title. only one team has shot better than 39% against st.joes in the entire tournament. south carolina held 2 potent offenses (maryland and unlv) to well below their average in their matchup (maryland scored just 67, unlv just 66) and for the tourney as a whole, south carolina allowing 66.5 ppg (and st.joes allowing just 52.6 ppg). just dont see anything that points to an over here. obviously if the refs are whistle-happy and get these teams into the bonus early, that low number might be in jeopardy, but both teams are perimeter-oriented and are content to shoot a lot of jumpers. this one should finish in the 100-teens.
Nice work.
