NCAA Basketball: 10 potential March Madness Bracket-Busters
By Chris Kern
Murray State Racers
Murray State made the NCAA tournament a year ago and they’re looking to get back this season. The Ohio Valley has a couple of other potential bracket busters as well so getting to the Big Dance will be a challenge, though. Last season, they lost as a No. 13 seed to No. 4 seed West Virginia, 85-68. They lost two key players from that team to graduation. Jonathan Stark and Terrell Miller Jr. were both huge for this team in leading them to the NCAA Tournament. They both are currently playing in the G-League.
Ja Morant has taken a huge step forward to start his sophomore campaign and is showing everyone why he is thought of as a future lottery pick. Through the team’s first 11 games, he is averaging 23 points, 9.6 assists, and 6.7 rebounds per game. His two steals per game also show his ability on that end of the floor. He has led this team to a good start and has shown everybody why they can be so dangerous.
Their only two losses this season have been on the road against Alabama and Auburn. They lost those games by a total of 11 points largely due to their star players ability to make plays. Morant scored a season-high 38 points in the loss to Alabama. One area Morant has struggled in, though, is his 3-point shooting. He is shooting just under 30% from deep so far in his college career. For as good as he has been, it is going to take more than just him to get this team even back to the NCAA Tournament, let alone win a game if they get there.
They did lose one of their seniors, Anthony Smith, for the season after he suffered an ankle injury just a couple of weeks ago. He didn’t play a huge role but he was a starter despite playing less than 20 minutes per game. Every team goes through injuries so it’s not a good excuse and it’s up to the youngsters to step up and they have the guys who can do that.
Tevin Brown has been big to start the season and he is the second-leading scorer on the team at 12.7 points per game. He has started all 11 games while playing more than 31 minutes on average. This team is centered around their three guards with Morant being the team’s star. Brown has been really good alongside him as well as senior guard Leroy Buchanan.
Buchanan is just behind Brown in scoring at 12.6 points per game. He also averages 4.7 rebounds, 2.2 assists, and 2 steals. He also struggles from 3-point range as he is shooting just 29% from deep. It’s not a huge concern at the moment but your main guards need to be able to consistently knock down three-point shots. While Morant and Buchanan struggle there, that is where Brown’s offense comes from. He is hitting 43% of his 7.5 three-point attempts per game.
This team has tough competition to fight through in the OVC before they start thinking about doing damage in the NCAA tournament, though. If they’re able to find a way to get back, they do have the star player to go along with other good contributors to pull off a big upset over any potential three or four seed they could face.