Bracketology 2023: 5 conferences with teams that can bust your bracket
![Florida Atlantic Owls guard Alijah Martin (15) does the Gator Chomp after in the second half after defeating the Gators. The Florida Gators menÕs basketball team hosted the Florida Atlantic Owls at Billy Donovan Court at Exactech Arena in Gainesville, FL on Monday, November 14, 2022. Florida Atlantic defeated Florida 76-74. [Doug Engle/Gainesville Sun]Gai Ufbasketballfau](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_1080,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape%2Fcover%2Fsport%2F93c246987712840be555b192871cc8313e82565e9149eb9239d56032b35c1134.jpg "Florida Atlantic Owls guard Alijah Martin (15) does the Gator Chomp after in the second half after defeating the Gators. The Florida Gators menÕs basketball team hosted the Florida Atlantic Owls at Billy Donovan Court at Exactech Arena in Gainesville, FL on Monday, November 14, 2022. Florida Atlantic defeated Florida 76-74. [Doug Engle/Gainesville Sun]Gai Ufbasketballfau")
Colonial Athletic Association – Charleston Cougars
The Charleston Cougars are back! But did they ever really leave? Pat Kelsey’s team is now 31-3 and after defeating UNC-Wilmington for the Colonial Athletic Association title, they’re headed to the NCAA tournament. After trailing by eight with six minutes to play, the cougars finished the game on an 18-5 run to take home the title.
Since beginning the year 1-1 after a loss to then No. 1 North Carolina, yet beat Davidson, Colorado State, and Virginia Tech to win the Charleston Classic. They rode that momentum into the school’s first-ever national ranking. But such is life as a mid-major, back-to-back losses to regular-season champ Hofstra and Drexel by a total of five points have the cougars in a tournament title or-bust scenario despite their success.
This team comes at you with a nine-man rotation that has five of them in double figures and a sixth at nine points per game. Illustrating the depth of the Cougars, in the CAA title game they had just two players in double figures, and leading scorer Dalton Bolon was held scoreless. Yes, 17 of Charleston’s wins fall in quad 4, but to be fair, 12 of them are league opponents which are out of their control. They swept all three of their quad 2 chances and even though their non-conference strength of schedule is just 207, go ahead and ask Kelsey how many schools he wanted to play but they declined.
Looking at the Cougars’ statistical profile can be confusing. Outside the arc, they don’t shoot it very well at just 33% which is 215th in the country but 37% of their points come from three-point land which is 25th best. Inside the arc, it’s the complete opposite. They shoot at a clip of nearly 53%, but only 43.7% percent of their points come from there, which is 350th in Division I. No matter what you think of Charleston’s numbers, one thing is for sure, they know how to win. A trip to the sweet sixteen as a double-digit seed wouldn’t be surprising.