Warriors take on the Wildcats in NCAA opener

Welcome back to March Madness. For the eighth consecutive season MU rah-rah is back in the thick of things, and for the second consective season the team earned mad respect from the Selection Committee by earning a 3 Seed.  The Big East Champions play the 14th-seeded Davidson Wildcats (26-7, Southern Conference Champions) on Thursday afternoon at approximately 2:10pm CT.  The game will appear on truTV.

More later in the week but this is a tough draw. As the guys at Paint Touches pointed out the Wildcats returned all five starters from last year’s NCAA tournament team – a bunch that gave Louisville a scare before falling 69-62 in the first round.

This is the second consecutive season that the Warriors earned a three seed. Does anybody remember what happened the last time MU was a three-seed, won its conference and lost in the first round of the conference tourney?  Karma.  Believe.

Here are a few links to get you through the day:

• Mike Hunt at the J-S.
• Pete Thamel from CNNSI thinks Davidson is a good bet to beat the Warriors.
• An MUScoop contributor who lives in the Carolinas and follows Davidson filed this report.
• The News & Observer points out that the two programs have not faced each other since the 1960s.
• The Charlotte Observer points out that the Wildcats want to keep their rhythm going  … they have not lost since January.
• The Sports Exchange offers this quick preview of the Thursday tilt.

Ken Pomeroy installed MU as a four-point favorite.  A quick look at the top line stats show some areas of strength and concern.

• Davidson is terrible at forcing turnovers.  MU has to take advantage of this and protect the ball given the trend lines we noted the other day.
• Davidson shoots the lights out. They sink 36.9% of their 3-pointers (nearly 8/game) while MU is just 83rd in the nation (9th in the Big East) at defending the trey, 31.8%.  Pat Connaughton, ugh.

Need a primer on the East Region? Check out Paint Touches.