Busting Brackets
Fansided

NCAA Basketball: Mid-major All-American team for November

BOISE, ID - MARCH 15: CJ Massinburg
BOISE, ID - MARCH 15: CJ Massinburg
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SAN DIEGO, CA – MARCH 16: Ja Morant #12 of the Murray State Racers handles the ball in the first half against the West Virginia Mountaineers during the first round of the 2018 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Viejas Arena on March 16, 2018 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Donald Miralle/Getty Images)
SAN DIEGO, CA – MARCH 16: Ja Morant #12 of the Murray State Racers handles the ball in the first half against the West Virginia Mountaineers during the first round of the 2018 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Viejas Arena on March 16, 2018 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Donald Miralle/Getty Images)

Ja Morant, Guard, Murray State

27.2 PPG, 8.2 RPG, 8.4 APG, 1.8 SPG

Numbers don’t lie and they can tell you a lot about Ja Morant.

Morant is this years “Mid-Major Darling You HAVE To Know About” and for good reason.  He can do it all.  His 27.2 PPG is good for 3rd best in the entire country and similarly, his assists per game are good enough to place him 3rd best as well.

His assist percentage is staggering 52.4%, which 4.1% higher than the next person on this list.  Given his affinity to pass the ball, it’s no shock that his 28.5 points produced per game rank him second in the country behind Chris Clemons.

And while it’s easy to sit back and sing his praises offensively, it’s hard to ignore that currently, Morant has an 82.1 defensive rating per 100 possessions.  He’s without a doubt one of the key factors as to why the Racers allows others teams to shoot only 21.7% from three according to KenPom.

With the exception of a road tilt at Southern Illinois in mid-December, a road visit to Auburn a few days before Santa comes to town, there’s little in the way of Murray State and March.  With only three KenPom Top-100 games left, aforementioned Southern Illinois and Auburn along with Belmont, we may be in for some sure-fire box score breaking games for Ja Morant in the months to come.