Sunday, March 17, 2019

Bracket Buster: Northeastern

I hadn’t given much consideration to the Huskies as a bracket buster until I looked at their offensive numbers. They don’t jump out at you because they finished 23-10 and some of the other bracket busters I’ve done had big win seasons. Also, they don’t have any big wins but let’s dig deeper at the team 78th in KenPom at the moment.

Northeastern’s offesne is 46th in AsjustedO. But what gets your attention is their effective fg% of 57.2%, 5th best in the nation. They get there by shooting 39% from 3, 14th best in the nation. On top of that, they shoot 56% from 2, 11th best in the nation. They also make their free throws, 35th best overall. 38.5% of their scoring comes from 3. If shots fall for them, someone is going to be in for a battle.

They aren’t a very special defense. They don’t foul much and are very good at rebounding on defense, 22nd best in the nation. That’s all negated by a terrible defensive effective fg%, which is 221st in the nation.

Junior Bolden Brace shoots 42% from 3. Junior Jordan Roland shoots 41% and senior Vasa Puscia shoots 40% from 3. If these guys are making shots, a 3 or 4 seed is going to be in for a battle.

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