74-year old SMU head coach Larry Brown is finally going dancing. After missing out on the tourney last year, Brown and his Mustangs took care of business in the American Athletic Conference tournament to book their ticket in.
The first test for Brown’s boys will come against the underachieving UCLA Bruins, a surprise entry whom many feel don’t deserve to be in the tourney. Will Brown’s Mustangs make the Bruins bow out in the Round of 64? Read on for our preview below.
After somewhat surprisingly missing out of last year’s tournament, SMU made no doubt about its inclusion to the Big Dance this year by winning the American conference tournament. The Mustangs, who also won the regular season title with a 15-3 conference record, have won four straight games and nine of their last 10. They went just 6-4 against the spread.
Coached by the legendary Larry Brown, the Mustangs have built a very solid defensive foundation. They allowed opponents just less than 60 points (26th in the nation) on 38 percent shooting (seventh). That defense has held their last two opponents – Temple and Connecticut – to a combined 34-of-107 (32 percent) shooting.
UCLA’s interior-oriented offense should play right into the hands of SMU’s imposing defense inside the three-point line. The twin towers of Yanick Moreira and Cannen Cunningham have helped the Mustangs limit opponents to just 413 two-point field goals this season, fourth-least in the nation.
Point guard and leading scorer Nic Moore (14.2 points, 5.2 assists) has been on a prolonged shooting slump recently. He’s shot just 18-of-66 (27 percent) over his last five games, including identical 3-of-14 games against Temple and UConn. But sixth man Markus Kennedy has risen to the occasion, upping his scoring output to 16 points per game in his last five.
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Betting on the UCLA Bruins
UCLA’s inclusion in the tournament after quite a mediocre 20-13 regular season drew the ire of quite a few within the college game. The Bruins’ humiliating seven-point first half against Kentucky in December was the low point in their season. It didn’t get much better after that, as they went just 2-8 against the Top-50 teams in RPI.
Despite a disappointing season, the Bruins can point to two fairly competitive games against runaway Pac-12 champions Arizona – a 57-47 loss on the road in February and a 70-64 loss in the Pac-12 tourney – as an indicator that they can at least hang with the best teams. Arizona, much like SMU, has a terrific defense anchored by a big and imposing frontcourt.
Guards Norman Powell (16.4 points per game) and Bryce Alford (15.1 points) were the team’s leading scorers in the regular season, and each had big games against Arizona’s very tough defense. Alford scored 22 in the first meeting, while Powell had 21 in the second.
UCLA isn’t a particularly prolific three-point shooting team (6.2 three-point makes per game), but Alford is a legitimate threat to catch fire from deep. He had five games of five or more threes this season, and should have his chances to launch against an SMU defense that gave up the most number of three pointers in the country this season.
Writer’s Prediction
SMU (-4) win and cover against UCLA to advance to the Round of 32.
