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NCAA Tournament Primer: Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers

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Get to know all of the NCAA Tournament’s automatic bids here.

Conference: Northeast Conference

Coach: Jamion Christian

Record: 16-16 (9-7 Northeast Conference)

Rankings and Ratings:

- Kenpom: 207
- RPI: 216
- AP/USA Today: Not ranked

Seeding?: In Dave Ommen’s most recent bracket, Robert Morris was projected as a No. 16 seed. RMC was the No. 1 seed in the NEC tournament. MSM finished fourth in the conference. They will be a No. 16 seed, and could end up in the play-in game.

Names you need to know: Rashad Whack (17.6 ppg, 4.5 rpg), Julian Norfleet (17.5 ppg, 5.5 apg), Sam Prescott (10.9 ppg, 5.0 rpg)

Stats you need to know: Mount St. Mary’s is 33rd nationally in tempo, according to KenPom. Their best attribute defensively is their ability to force turnovers, and while they are quite literally as good as anyone in the country at taking away the three-pointer (only one team gives up a lower percentage of their points from beyond the arc), a lot of that is because they simply cannot defend around the rim. No team in the country allows more points from two-point range, and they rank 337th nationally in opponent’s two-point field goal percentage.

Tendencies: Christian is a product of the Shaka Smart coaching tree, and as a result, the Mountaineers play a similar style. They want to press. They want to force turnovers. They gamble a lot, which is why they give up so many layups. They want an uptempo, hectic game. They shoot a lot of threes. It’s Havoc, only not as good and without the nickname.

Big wins, bad losses: According to KenPom, the Mount’s two best wins on the season came back in November, when they knocked off American and Bucknell, who are both top 150 teams. Bad losses? Well, they’ve lost to three of the nation’s 25 worst teams. Do those count?

How’d they get here?: The Mountaineers won the Northeast Conference tournament in impressive fashion, knocking off No. 2 seed Wagner in the semis before going into Pittsburgh to beat No. 1 seed league champ Robert Morris.

Outlook: Mount St. Mary’s is going to have a tough time winning a game in the NCAA tournament unless that happen to end up in the play-in game. They finished the regular season below .500. They finished tied for fourth place in the NEC. They got hot and the right time, winning the NEC tournament in part because of a ridiculous shooting display early on in the title game, and that’s why they are dancing.

How do I know you?: Jim Phelan, who coached for 49 years at the Mount, is one of 14 NCAA coaches with more than 800 career wins. He’s the winningest coach that isn’t currently in the Hall of Fame.