Texas Southern vs. Fairleigh Dickinson: 5 Things to Watch, Winner Plays Purdue in NCAA Tournament
The First Four of the 2023 NCAA Tournament continues Wednesday night in Dayton, Ohio, as Texas Southern and Fairleigh Dickinson square off to determine who will be the No. 16 seed in the East region.
The Tigers and Knights are competing to make the Round of 64, where No. 1 seed Purdue awaits the winner. The first-round game is scheduled to take place at 6:30 p.m. ET on Friday at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.
Texas Southern earned its NCAA Tournament bid by winning the Southwestern Athletic Conference despite a 14-20 overall record. Fairleigh Dickinson is 19-15 after losing the Northeast Conference Tournament title game to Merrimack, a school that is ineligible for the NCAA Tournament as a transitional Division I program.
How to watch Texas Southern vs. Fairleigh Dickinson
- TV channel: truTV
- Game time: Wednesday, March 15, at 6:30 p.m. ET
- Location: UD Arena in Dayton, Ohio
Here are five things to watch as both programs look to play their way into the first round of the NCAA Tournament:
1. Texas Southern brings a mix of youth and experience
The Tigers are no stranger to the NCAA Tournament, making their third straight appearance after winning in the First Four in each of the last two seasons. The team is led by sophomore forward Davon Barnes, who scores an average of 13.6 points per game.
Barnes is one of four players scoring in double figures, with a trio of seniors alongside him in the starting lineup. Texas Southern not only has the March Madness experience under its belt but also prepared itself with one of the hardest nonconference schedules in the entire country.
It boasts the fourth-ranked nonconference strength of schedule according to the 2023 Pomeroy College Basketball Ratings and matched up against five teams in the NCAA Tournament field.
In a stretch of four games, the Tigers played Arizona State, Oral Roberts, Houston and Auburn before going on the road to play Kansas. They picked up a 67-66 upset win over the Sun Devils on Nov. 13 at home and finished 7-9 outside of the SWAC.
Against teams that made the NCAA Tournament, Barnes scored 13.4 points per game, including a 22-point performance against the Jayhawks on 9-of-14 shooting from the floor.
2. Fairleigh Dickinson scores in bunches
The Knights are fueled by a high-scoring offense that ranks inside the top 50 in the country, putting up 77.8 points per contest. Like the Tigers, they also have four different players that are scoring at least 10 points per game this season.
Fairleigh Dickinson ranked first in the NEC in scoring by making 45.5 percent of its shots from the field while leading the league in both turnover margin and assist/turnover ratio. The team shoots a high volume of 3-pointers, making 275 of its 795 attempted shots from beyond the arc in 34 games.
Senior guard Demetre Roberts puts up a team-high 16.7 points and 4.3 assists per game. He's scored in double figures in all but six games this season, including 13 contests of 20 or more points.
3. Texas Southern's abysmal 3-point shooting
The Tigers have the lowest adjusted offensive efficiency of all teams in the NCAA Tournament field according to the 2023 Pomeroy College Basketball Ratings and finished last in the SWAC by shooting just 28.4 percent from the 3-point line.
Texas Southern has made 162 of its 571 shots from deep across 34 games, and senior guard PJ Henry leads the group at 35.1 percent. He is the only player on the team to attempt more than 100 shots from the 3-point line (53-of-151).
However, Henry has made four 3-pointer in each of the last two games and averaged 18.7 points during the SWAC Tournament.
4. Rebounding is a strength of Texas Southern
When the Tigers struggle to find shot consistency, they make up for it by limiting opposing second-chance opportunities for opposing teams. Texas Southern led the SWAC with 26.1 defensive rebounds per game and a rebound margin of 2.1.
Senior forward Joirdon Karl Nicholas leads the way with 8.9 rebounds per game. The team has 10 different players averaging at least two rebounds per contest this season. Henry falls just short of that mark at 1.9.
5. Fairleigh Dickinson's defensive weakness, size
While the Knights like to put up a lot of points, they struggle on the defensive end of the floor. Of the teams in the NCAA Tournament, Fairleigh Dickinson has the lowest adjusted defensive rating. It ranks third to last among 363 qualifying schools in the entire country.
The team also plays a small lineup, comprised of players no taller than 6-foot-6. Junior forward Pier-Olivier Racine is listed at 6-foot-7 and 232 pounds, but he has appeared in just eight games this season, averaging 1.1 points in 3.5 minutes per contest.
Roberts and fellow senior guard Grant Singleton are the team's two leading scorers. They are listed as 5-foot-8 and 5-foot-9, respectively.
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D.J. Fezler is a staff writer for BoilermakersCountry.com. Hailing from The Region, he is from Cedar Lake in Northwest Indiana and has spent the last two years covering Purdue football and basketball.