On Monday, two more bids to the NCAA Tournament rolled in, and had you predicted that these two teams would have been the ones grabbing them at the beginning of their respective conference tournament, you would have walked away with a decent return on your investment.
Neither of these next two featured were expected to be continuing their season deep into March, so to an extent, the glass slipper is already being worn.
Let’s take a look at the automatic qualifiers from the Southern and Sun Belt conferences.
Southern
Automatic Bid: Wofford
Projected Seed: 15
Cinderella Probability: Unlikely
Try to overlook the 19-15 record and the early season loss to Duke (alright – a 51-point loss is hard to overlook). The SoCon is one of the most competitive small conference leagues in college basketball, and the Terriers were fortunate enough to get hot from behind the arc when it mattered most, outlasting higher seeds (they were the 5) to cap off a wild week in Asheville.
If you watched any Wofford’s conference tournament games, then you’re aware of just how dangerous this team can be when shooting well from the three-point line. Dillon Bailey has one of the quickest releases I’ve seen in college basketball since that kid from Davidson, and he’s really just a complement to the offense.
All the nice things said aside, the recent success feels a bit like a deviation from the Wofford that existed for the majority of the season. The Terriers have consistently shot from behind the arc a ton, but they haven’t always made a ton of those shots. For that reason, it is a bit of a stretch to say that this team is primed for a run in the NCAA Tournament.
Sun Belt
Automatic Bid: Troy
Projected Seed: 13 or 14
Cinderella Probability: Unlikely
With all due respect to the SoCon, the Sun Belt was in actuality the most competitive small/mid-major conference this season, with four teams sharing the regular season crown. The Trojans were one of those four teams and proved their worth during the conference tournament, dispatching of two of the others on the way to securing a berth in the Big Dance.
Troy hasn’t lost a game by double-digits since mid-December, and that came against Houston. The ability for the Trojans to hang tight against just about anyone is thanks to strong defensive principles. Scott Cross’s team isn’t particularly good at shooting from the field and is one of the worst in Division I from behind the arc. But the ability to slow the game down and contest shots usually leaves the Trojans in a position to close.
Troy will likely be at a disadvantage in multiple facets of the game in its first round contest, so the lack of shooting prowess and a tendency for turnovers has Around The Corn concerned about its ability to do a lot of damage.
