Wofford basketball may be the mid-major darling of this year’s tournament, but they face a tough opening-round game with Seton Hall.
Some have dubbed this season the year of the mid-major because of the number of non-power five teams that had successful regular seasons, at the head of that list is the Wofford Terriers who are currently ranked 19th in the country and after finishing a sweep of the Southern Conference schedule and tournament, find themselves as a No. 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament, that for them begins on Thursday night when they battle the No. 10 seed in the Midwest Region, Seton Hall Pirates.
Mike Young’s team enters the tournament on a 20-game winning streak and haven’t lost since December 19th when they were defeated by Mississippi State. With a high-octane offense and with the residual effect of being on the national radar for most of the season, they could be a popular pick to make the kind of run that Loyola-Chicago went on in last year’s tournament. Senior Fletcher Magee is one of the best shooters in the country who averages over 20 points per game and likely to be the focus of Seton Hall’s defensive efforts.
When the brackets were revealed and this matchup popped up, I had two thoughts, the first was, “great we get to see a Magee Myles Powell matchup!” The second was if I wanted to see Wofford make a run this is a difficult first-round opponent for them.
The Terriers are capable of moving on to face the No. 2 seed Kentucky, but in order to do that, they have to knock off the Pirates. If they want to do this, here are some things they need to do.