Bracket - Sr. Guards Pull Upsets - Stetson's Insanely Good Backcourt Likely Not Enough

Here is the quick reference of brackets with the links to this and each of the other brackets.

This is the bracket that can be a complete disaster if the favorites are winning, BUT it is also the one that can find great upsets some years - as underdogs with veteran backcourts sometimes control games against more talented one-and-dones.

I'll give a perfect example. As great as UNC and Auburn are, if they were matched up with Stetson's incredible backcourt I might take a shot at a first round upset.

Stetson's senior point guard Stephan Swenson never leaves the court. Their season was OVER in the ASun semi final when Jacksonville went on a 23-4 run in the second half, and still led by 4 with seconds remaining when Swenson rallied his team to an 88-87 win to finish his night with 29 points on an insane 7 of 9 three-pointers and went ahead and added 6 assists to 1 turnover.

Junior shoot guard Jalen Blackmon transferred from Grand Canyon to form the dynamic duo two years ago and in the championship game their season looked over again when Austin Peay went ahead 54-49. Blackmon made Swenson's semi final look pedestrian as he erupted for and even more insane 43 points on 12 of 22 shooting including 5 of 9 three pointers and an even more impressive 14 of 17 from the line in the clutch to pull off a 94-91 title win and send Stetson to the NCAA.

Most years there aren't that many teams with two senior point guards, particularly at big programs with one-and-dones. My second best category is a senior point guard and a junior shooting guard like Swenson and Blackmon, and against a power team with a talented but young background I'd take a chance on Stetson for a stunner upset if they both went off like that on the same night. Thus against this years young UNC or Auburn I could see Stetson winning a stunner.

But this year there are so many experienced back courts due to the Covid extra year in addition to red shirting. An incredible 16 tournament teams start two seniors in the guard spots, and another 11 teams like Stetson have a senior point guard and junior shooting guard - making 27 incredibly experienced backcourts.

And unfortunately for Stetson's dynamic due - their reward for the incredible showing is they happen to face the very best of all the experienced backcourts. They face none other than the coolest player in the tournament, point guard Tristen Newton who stays on the court 89% of the time and beside him perhaps the best back court shooter in Cam Spencer. Tough draw to get one of the other incredible 27 experienced back courts. Here are all 27 of them in order.

 

Rnk	Both Seniors	Point Guard	PT	Shooting Guard	PT
1	UConn	2 Tristen Newton	89%	12 Cam Spencer	51%
		6-5  195  Sr		6-4  205  Sr
2	Mich St.	11 AJ Hoggard	77%	2 Tyson Walker	86%
		6-4  210  Sr		6-1  185  Sr
3	Houston	1 Jamal Shead	84%	4 LJ Cryer	78%
		6-1  200  Sr		6-1  200  Sr
4	San Diego St.	12 Darrion Trammell	76%	5 Lamont Butler	52%
		5-10  175  Sr		6-2  205  Sr
5	Creighton	1 Steven Ashworth	90%	5 Francisco Farabello	52%
		6-1  170  Sr		6-3  180  Sr
6	Florida Atl	4 Bryan Greenlee	47%	23 Brandon Weatherspoon	40%
		6-0  191  Sr		6-4  186  Sr
7	TCU	3 Avery Anderson	55%	11 Trevian Tennyson	51%
		6-2  170  Sr		6-3  180  Sr
8	Alabama	1 Mark Sears	95%	55 Aaron Estrada	60%
		6-1  185  Sr		6-3  190  Sr
9	Clemson	1 Chase Hunter	66%	11 Joseph Girard	72%
		6-4  200  Sr		6-2  189  Sr
10	Northwestern	0 Boo Buie	96%	5 Ryan Langborg	44%
		6-2  180  Sr		6-4  195  Sr
11	Nevada	13 Kenan Blackshear	37%	2 Jarod Lucas	80%
		6-6  215  Sr		6-4  195  Sr
12	Montana St	3 Eddie Turner	86%	20 Robert Ford	67%
		6-2  183  Sr		6-0  180  Sr
13	N.C. State	12 Michael O'Connell	69%	0 DJ Horne	49%
		6-2  195  Sr		6-2  180  Sr
14	Duquesne	1 Jimmy Clark	79%	3 Dae Dae Grant	80%
		6-3  185  Sr		6-2  185  Sr
15	Howard	3 Jordan Hairston	44%	23 Jordan Hairston	47%
		6-0  160  Sr		6-0  160  Sr
16	Longwood	1 Walyn Napper	87%	3 DA Houston	49%
		6-1  185  Sr		6-1  212  Sr
Rnk	Sr. PG, Jr. SG	Point Guard	PT	Shooting Guard	PT
17	Baylor	10 RayJ Dennis	95%	2 Jayden Nunn	77%
		6-2  180  Sr		6-4  190  Jr
18	Marquette	11 Tyler Kolek	78%	1 Kam Jones	90%
		6-3  195  Sr		6-5  200  Jr
19	Akron	2 Greg Tribble	49%	1 Shammah Scott	42%
		6-3  195  Sr		6-2  180  Jr
20	McNeese St	13 Shahada Wells	82%	14 Javohn Garcia	37%
		6-0  184  Sr		6-3  183  Jr
21	Long Beach S	0 Marcus Tsohonis	55%	12 Jadon Jones	57%
		6-3  190  Sr		6-5  185  Jr
22	Vermont	1 Aaron Deloney	82%	20 TJ Long	65%
		6-0  170  Sr		6-4  195  Jr
23	Colorado St	4 Isaiah Stevens	90%	15 Jalen Lake	45%
		6-0  185  Sr		6-4  190  Jr
24	Grand Canyon	10 Jovan Blacksher	48%	8 Collin Moore	52%
		5-11  165  Sr		6-4  205  Jr
25	Grambling	5 Tra'Michael Moton	58%	00 Kintavious Dozier	69%
		6-1  170  Sr		6-1    Jr
26	Saint Peter's	0 Latrell Reid	89%	2 Marcus Randolph	41%
		6-3  185  Sr		6-5  205  Jr
27	Stetson	30 Stephan Swenson	94%	5 Jalen Blackmon	78%
		6-2  190  Sr		6-3  181  Jr