No. 16 ETSU Buccaneers at No. 1 Pittsburgh Panthers

NCAA Tournament First Round—East Region

Friday, March 20, 2:55 PM EST on CBS

Preview

ETSU defeated the A-Sun regular season champs Jacksonville 85-68 in the tournament finals to secure their automatic bid to the Big Dance. This is their first trip to the NCAA Tournament since winning back-to-back Southern Conference titles in '02-03 and '03-04 (they have since switched to the A-Sun conference).

After reaching the top spot in the national polls earlier this season for the first time in the school's history, Pitt received their first No. 1 seed at the Big Dance. While they were knocked out of the Big East Tournament early by West Virginia, they did manage to take down fellow No. 1 seed Connecticut twice.

The Panthers are led by three key players (though their role players aren't too shabby either)—Levance Fields, Sam Young, and co-Big East Player of the Year DeJuan Blair. In addition to his POY award, Blair was selected to the All-Big East First Team, alongside Young (who was also selected last year). Fields was selected to the All-Big East Third Team.

This game should not be overly difficult for the Panthers to dominate, especially considering the competition they have been up against this season. They finished second in the Big East in a year where many consider the conference to be the deepest conference ever.

In their three other losses this season, the Panthers have bounced back with a strong performance and big win. Only time will tell if the pattern will continue, or if the Bucs will be able to slow down one of the best teams the Big East has to offer.

 

By The Numbers

  Record Conf ATS RPI SOS PF PA
ETSU 23-10 14-6 2-2 116 249 78.6 70.0
Pitt 28-4 15-3 16-9-1 2 8 78.0 64.0

 

  FG% D. FG% 3P% D. 3P% FT% RPG SPG APG TPG BPG
ETSU 46.8 40.6 33.6 32.6 71.5 41.0 8.5 12.6 14.2 3.9
Pitt 48.4 41.1 35.4 33.6 67.4 42.7 7.1 18.0 12.0 3.9

 

Stats Leaders

  ETSU Pitt
PPG K. Tiggs - 21.5 S. Young - 18.7
  C. Pigram - 17.6 D. Blair - 15.6
  M. Smith - 15.5 L. Fields - 10.7
RPG M. Smith - 7.7 D. Blair - 12.2
APG C. Pigram - 4.2 L. Fields - 7.6
SPG K. Tiggs - 2.2 J. Dixon - 1.5
BPG G. Hamlin - 1.6 D. Blair - 1.0

 

Prediction

 

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