Wednesday Night First Four Games - An Off Tackle Republic Open Thread

Last Night's Games

Howard Bison 86, UMBC Retrievers 83

BoilerUp89: UMBC made a late run but in the end the puppies couldn't take down the big bad Bison.

Texas Longhorns 68, North Carolina State Wolfpack 66

BoilerUp89: Pairing Charles Barkley and Dick Vitale was a choice on par for choosing Texas and North Carolina for the NCAA Tournament field.

Tonight's Games

16 Prairie View Panthers (18-17, SWAC auto bid) v 16 Lehigh Mountain Hawks (18-16, Patriot auto bid)

6:40 ET, truTV

BoilerUp89: Prairie View won the SWAC tournament as the 8 seed. For anyone familiar with the SWAC tournament, this was a shocking upset. The Panthers are the worst team in the field, but they've also won 7 games in a row. Maybe they figured something out in late February? Avert your eyes from the half court offense. Prairie View will need to score off turnovers and at the free throw line because they can't shoot straight. The Panthers are looking for their first NCAA Tournament victory.

Lehigh should be an interesting matchup for Prairie View. They are terrible at taking care of the basketball (they give up steals more than all but 12 other Division I teams) but can really shoot the three. The Mountain Hawks benefitted from Boston upsetting Navy. The defense and rebounding can be rough but Lehigh is looking for their victory in the Big Dance since they knocked off Duke.

11 Miami Redhawks (31-1, MAC at-large) v. 11 Southern Methodist Mustangs (20-13, ACC at-large)

9:15 ET, truTV

BoilerUp89: Miami famously played the 361st most difficult non-conference schedule in Division I this year, but found ways to win games and stay undefeated until the MAC tournament when they lost to UMass. SMU is pretty clearly the better team, but if ticket prices are any indication this should be a home-like environment for Miami fans in the Southwest Ohio area and the Mustangs aren't that much better than the Akron team Miami beat by 3 at home. Just saying, don't automatically assume SMU will whip the Redhawks.

Miami's team run thru their offense. They are an excellent shooting team (37.5% from three and an outstanding 61.5% from two). They want to play fast and don't often turn it over. Defensively, they are an incomplete product making their games highly entertaining. Watch for Peter Suder, Brant Byers, and Elan Elmer shots early. If the trio can handle the nerves that come from playing on a big stage and hit shots anywhere near what they did in the regular season we should have ourselves a game.

SMU stumbled their way into a tournament bid after losing their final four ACC regular season games against Cal, Stanford, Miami, and Florida State. By rights they shouldn't even be here. Some of that is the effect of guard BJ Edwards who got injured in the first game of that stretch with an ankle injury. SMU loudly stated he would be back for the NCAA Tournament and the Committee clearly believed them and gave them the benefit of the doubt. However in the last day or so the conversation about Edwards availability tonight has been less definite. We will see if he's able to play.

MaximumSam: Let's pray to the spirit of Wally. Baby Wally, please forgive our basketball sins. Bless this beer and bless this pizza and bless this tournament. And please give us the strength to tell our families to leave us alone tonight and all nights until this tournament is over. Praise be baby Wally. Amen.

HoustonBoiler: Miami has won many close games, including several in OT, so they're used to making shots with the game on the line. I've only seen them once this season, their March 6 game at Ohio that Miami won in OT, and they did make shots when they needed to. Miami is a good shooting team and doesn't turn the ball over a lot, but their defense leaves something to be desired. To have a chance against SMU, Miami will need to shoot the ball well.