What Wofford must do to beat Seton Hall in first round of NCAA Tournament
This has been anything but a typical season for Wofford.
From the 21-0 record against Southern Conference teams, to the No. 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament (the highest ever for a SoCon program) to a sharpshooter who is closing in on the NCAA Division I record for 3-pointers made, there has been a great deal of extra attention paid to the mid-major school from Spartanburg, South Carolina.
What will allow the Terriers to have success Thursday night against Seton Hall is playing the same type of basketball that it has all year.
Wofford is back in the NCAA Tournament for the fifth time in school history (all in the past 10 years) and has an opportunity to earn its first win ever in the Big Dance when it faces the Pirates at approximately 9:40 p.m. Thursday on CBS.
Wofford is playing in March Madness in Jacksonville for the third time after losing to Wisconsin by four points in 2010 and Arkansas by three points in 2015. Head coach Mike Young is hopeful that the third time is the charm.
“I love coming down here. This is three of the five years that we’ve been a part of this great tournament we’ve been in Jacksonville. I love the city. I love the arena,” Young said. “We know what’s in front of us. I’ve got a really good team and we’re excited to be here. We’re excited to take the floor [Thursday] and get after it.”
Wofford is led by one of the best shooters in NCAA history in Fletcher Magee. The Orlando native has made 502 career 3-pointers in his career and is two away from tying the NCAA Division I record.
Seton Hall has a great scorer as well in junior Myles Powell, who is averaging nearly 23 points per game.
The Pirates enter the tournament having won four of their past five games with the only loss being a two-point loss to defending national champion Villanova in the Big East Tournament.
“Really athletic team, plays really hard. They look really good. They’re really talented. Powell’s a really good shooter so we’ll have to key in on him, but they have great players other than him,” Terriers point guard Storm Murphy said. “We’re gonna have to really stick to what we know and what we’ve done all year.”
What Wofford has done all year is find a way to win. The Terriers have not lost since Dec. 19 at Mississippi State, a span of more than three months.
But this will be one of the toughest tests all season for the Terriers, who also faced North Carolina, South Carolina and Kansas earlier in the year.
“We just have to do what we do every game: Come out, be physical, don’t turn the ball over, play together I think is the main three things. I think if we take care of the ball, we’ll put ourselves in a position to win,” Wofford forward Cameron Jackson said. “They present a lot of challenges. They’re very physical, so we’re going to have to try to match their physicality.”
HOW TO WATCH
Who: No. 7 Wofford vs. No. 10 Seton Hall
Where: NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Jacksonville Regional, VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena
When: Thursday, March 21, approx. 9:40 p.m.
Watch: CBS, Stream online via NCAA.com
This story was originally published March 20, 2019 at 7:01 PM with the headline "What Wofford must do to beat Seton Hall in first round of NCAA Tournament."
