4 Things You Need to Know about Tuesday's First Four

The NCAA Tournament tips off in Dayton Tuesday night with the First Four. As I shared this morning, don’t write it off. In its ten years of existence, nine times a team from the First Four has at least made it to the Round of 32, with two teams reaching the Final Four. Could there be one in play tonight? The 16-seeds get the ball rolling at 6:40 pm, followed by Wyoming vs. Indiana at approximately 9:10 pm on truTV. Before you blindly make a bet, let’s learn a little more about these NCAA Tournament teams.

Johnny Jones is in the First Four

Texas Southern provides a biannual treat for college basketball fans. Over the last decade they’ve popped up in the postseason with a familiar face on the sideline. “I didn’t know he was still coaching basketball?”

Former IU and UAB head coach Mike Davis took the Tigers to four NCAA Tournaments in five years before taking his talents to Detroit Mercy. He was replaced by another familiar face, Johnny Jones. The man who couldn’t coach Ben Simmons into the NCAA Tournament has now won back-to-back SWAC Championships.

They Free

The Islanders from Texas A&M Corpus Christi have won seven of their last eight games, including three straight in the Southland Conference Tournament, capped off with a W over top-seeded Nicholls State. A team that attacks the rim, their bread is butter at the free throw line. The Islanders are second in the nation in free throws made (563) and third in free throw attempts (757). The scrappy team also ranks 12th in offensive rebounds per game (12.9) and 13th in turnovers forced per game (16.4).

Two Talented Cowboys

Trayce Jackson-Davis and Xavier Johnson might not be the most dynamic duo on the court tonight at University of Dayton Arena. Six-foot-nine forward Graham Ike is one of only four players in the country that averages at least 19 points and nine rebounds per game. Hunter Maldanado, a 6-foot-7 senior wing, is arguably the best Mid-Major basketball player in America, averaging 18.4 points, 6.3 assists and 5.8 rebounds per game. This year he became the third Cowboy to record a triple-double, racking up 13 points, 13 boards and 11 assists against San Diego State.

Indiana looking for its First NCAA Tournament Win since Tom Crean

Tom Crean has been fired, spent a year in the broadcast booth, hired, then re-fired in the time it took for Indiana to return to the NCAA Tournament. It’s a sad, easy dunk on the Hoosiers, but it comes at Kentucky’s expense.

The last Indiana NCAA Tournament win was the first and only John Calipari loss prior to the Sweet 16 as the Wildcats’ head coach. Crean’s Hoosiers rode the hot hand of Yogi Ferrell (18 points), while Kentucky had absolutely no answer for Thomas Bryant. The power forward was 6-of-8 from the floor and 7-of-9 from the free throw line, scoring 19 points to propel IU past the SEC Tournament Champs 73-67 in the second round of the 2016 NCAA Tournament. Even though both teams were destined to fall to North Carolina in the Sweet 16, it’s still a shame that Tyler Ulis’ All-American season ended with 27 points in a loss to the good-for-nothing Hoosiers.

BONUS: The Wyoming Game Notes are a Spectacle

You don’t need another reason to cheer against Indiana, but allow me. The Cowboys’ have invested heavily in photoshop in their sports information department and it has produced GOLD.

If that timely Temple of Doom reference doesn’t get you fired up for the Cowboys, let me get you two tickets to Laradise.

#GoPokes