Preview: The matchup nightmare of the Northeastern Huskies
March Madness is officially upon us, and the 4 seeded Kansas Jayhawks have been selected to face off against the 13 seeded Northeastern Huskies in Round 1 of the NCAA Tournament.
Who are the Northeastern Huskies?
The 23-10 Northeastern Huskies are coached by Bill Coen, who is in his 12th year at the helm. The Huskies finished second in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) regular season standings but won the conference tournament over a talented Hofstra team.
They have won seven games in a row and are considered one of the hottest mid-major teams in the tournament field.
Northeastern plays a four-guard lineup, where they spread the floor and look to shoot every possible three-point shot they can. Very similar to Iowa State.
They have shooters all over the floor. Four of their players shoot at least 40% from beyond the arc, and they have one other who shoots just under that mark.
As a team, the Huskies rank 15th in the nation in three-point percentage at 38.8% and 21st in the nation in field-goal percentage at 48.2%.
Here’s a look at Northeastern’s core players with statistics:
Starters:
Anthony Green, Center / 6’10 / 252 LBS / 8.9 PPG / 5.4 REB / 68 FG%
Bolden Brace, Guard / 6’6 / 225 LBS / 10 PPG / 6 REB / 41 3PT%
Vasa Pusica, Guard / 6’5 / 210 LBS / 17.8 PPG / 4.2 AST / 40.1 3PT%
Jordan Roland, Guard / 6’1 / 171 LBS / 14.7 PPG / 2.4 REB / 40.8 3PT%
Donnell Gresham Jr., Guard / 6’1 / 203 LBS / 9.8 PPG / 4.8 REB / 39.3 3PT%
Bench:
Shawn Occeus, Guard / 6’4 / 208 LBS / 10.1 PPG / 2.7 REB / 33.3 3PT%
Tomas Murphey, Forward / 6’8 / 230 LBS / 8.2 PPG / 3.5 REB / 46.2 3PT%
As the statistics above will tell you, Northeastern’s star player is Vasa Pusica.
Pusica is a first-team All-CAA guard who can hit shots from all areas of the court and can attack the basket with consistency. In fact, he’s shooting nearly 50% from the floor this season.
With his size and shooting efficiency, defending Pusica will be a major challenge for Kansas’s guards.
It’s easy to say guys such as guards Marcus Garrett or Ochai Agbaji can handle the matchup against the 6’5 Pusica, but given that Kansas is a team that does a lot of defensive switching, it’s very possible that smaller guards such as Devon Dotson or Charlie Moore could find themselves guarding him.
With that being said, this will be the type of game where we see a lot of the four-guard lineup for Kansas.
On one hand, this lineup free’s up space for redshirt junior forward Dedric Lawson in the low post, but on the other, there will be more dependency on the offensive end for Garrett and Moore.
No disrespect to those two, but they have not exactly been consistent on offense this season.
And given that Coen has been coaching college basketball for very a long time, it’s safe to assume he will have a gameplan to limit Lawson.
This makes it imperative for each member of the Kansas frontcourt to pose as a scoring threat to take some of that pressure off of Lawson.
However, this task isn’t exactly daunting, as Northeastern ranks 288th in the nation at defensive field goal percentage.
With Dotson and fellow freshman guard Quentin Grimes playing their best basketball of the season, the Kansas backcourt should be able to take advantage of this matchup.
Another area Kansas can thrive in is on the glass. Northeastern is a small team that likes to hover around the perimeter, especially on the offensive end.
It ranks 224th in the nation in defensive rebounds per game and 341st in offensive rebounds per game.
Kansas has a definite advantage as they rank 35th in the nation in defensive rebounding and 147th in offensive rebounding, in addition to having two big men coming off of the bench.
Garrett grabbed 15 total rebounds (four offensive) in 35 total minutes against Iowa State last Saturday.
With his size and length, he, and whatever big is in at the time, will have the opportunity to create a lot of second-chance points.
In summary, this isn’t the greatest first-round match up for Kansas, but it could be worse.
Given Northeastern’s style of play and Kansas’s struggles against this style, it will be easy for many Kansas fans to fear the worst outcome for this game.
Yes, Northeastern is a team that can light it up from deep, but let’s keep in mind that Kansas has a hall of fame coach, they will have the crowd advantage, and lastly, one team has Lawson and the other doesn’t.
Kansas and Northeastern will tip off March 21 at 3 p.m. central time on TNT.