2014 NCAAB Tournament: South Region

Table Guide

Column 1) Effective Field Goal Percentage. 2) Turnover Rate. 3) Free Throw Rate. 

4) Offensive Rebound Rate. 5) Defensive Effective Field Goal Percentage. 

6) Defensive Turnover Rate. 7) Defensive Free Throw Rate. 8) Defensive Rebound Rate. 

9) Offensive Rating (Higher is better). 10) Defensive Rating (Lower is better)

Colorado (8) vs. Pittsburgh (9): The Buffs Offensive Rating plummeted after leading scorer and NBA lottery hopeful Spencer Dinwiddie went down with a torn ACL at the start of conference play. They still proved to be effective defensively and will need a strong defensive showing to advance. The Pitt Panthers can't seem to put it together at the end of games. Two final possession defeats to each of Virginia and Syracuse could have had Pitt as a 3 or 4 seed had they ended differently. Lamar Patterson and James Robinson are their main source of offense and will likely be the difference in this one.

Ohio State (6) vs. Dayton (11): This matchup features two teams that are polar opposites of each other. Ohio State is one of the best defensive teams in the league and feature Aaron Craft who is a top 5 point guard defensively. They are prone to long offensive droughts which is the main reason for their 9 losses. Dayton has plenty of senior leadership in Vee Sanford and Devin Oliver. Their defense as a whole may be just what Ohio State needs however as they rank 101st in the nation in efficiency.

Kansas (2) vs. Eastern Kentucky (15) - With or without a healthy Joel Embiid, this game is likely a walkover. Eastern Kentucky did well to get by a heavily favored Belmont team to win the OVC, but will be greatly outmatched on the boards and from the field in this one. The Colonels have shown some flashes of being a team that upsets this season as they lost a close one to VCU on the road in OT earlier this year.

New Mexico (7) vs. Stanford (10) - This is an excellent matchup between two very even teams. The Lobos have shown success this season even outside of "The Pit" as they took the Mountain West crown over a very tough San Diego State team. Cameron Bairstow and Alex Kirk won't necessarily control the boards as they normally do in this one with the Cardinal having a couple of trees of their own. Dwight Powell and Stefan Nastic are near 7 feet tall and are used as primary scoring options in their balanced offense.

VCU (5) vs. Stephen F. Austin (12) - VCU has gotten used to the role of the spoiler in recent years, but they're very much in danger of getting upsetted in this game. The Lumberjacks put teams to sleep in their slow paced game. It'll be up to VCU to control the tempo and make sure their possessions aren't limited. Shaka Smart has his team playing excellent defense (#2 efficiency in the nation) so this one will probably be low scoring even with VCU's up tempo style of play offensively.

Syracuse (3) vs. Western Michigan (14) - I'm angry at the Orange for losing to NC State in the ACC tournament. It meant the eventual snubbing for Larry Brown's SMU Mustangs who I believe deserved to get in. Still, Syracuse are a very dangerous team as Jim Boeheim's 2-3 zone continues to stifle just about any opponent. The Broncos won 12 of their final 13 games on the way to a MAC championship. With no go-to offensive scorers, it'll take a full team effort to get by the Orange.

UCLA (4) vs. Tulsa (13) - It's unfortunate that Tulsa had to run into perhaps the hottest team on the West Coast. Danny Manning makes his triumphant return to the NCAA Tournament, now as a coach, after the Golden Hurricane won their final 11 games. They're not as offensively proficient as Manning was as a player, and rely heavily on their defense. UCLA should probably blow this team out, after 20+ point drubbings to tournament teams Oregon and Stanford, they put up 75 points against the nations top defense (Arizona) as they took the Pac 12 crown.

Albany vs. Mount St. Mary's - The winner of this game will get fed to the Florida Gators. Both made excellent runs in their conference tournaments as underdogs in their respective championship games. Mount St. Mary's is the worst defensive team in the tournament while Albany is 3rd worst offensive team in the field. Something's gotta give.

Florida(1) vs Albany(16): The Danes got their first ever tournament victory Tuesday night, and are unlikely to see their second here.  Albany is a bit turnover heavy to matchup with the Gators, handing it over 19.9% of the the time.  They will at least make Florida work for their points though, ranking 5th best in the nation in free throws per field goal attempts.  Florida is headlined by SF Casey Prather, who is an outstanding shooter.  He posted a 63.6% true shooting rate, and got to the line often by drawing about 6 fouls per game.  The player that might surprise a lot of folks is Michael Frazier, who only uses about 17% of the Gators possessions but owns a 127.2 ORtg mark.