Possible Cinderella Team: New Mexico's NCAA Tournament Journey
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC]
00:03 Now let's make some cases for the long shots.
00:06 Because, J-Y, when you think of March Madness, we love that idea of chaos,
00:11 of insanity, of that very term, madness.
00:14 Which Cinderella's, which long shots in this NCAA tournament field,
00:19 do you think can make a run deep into the big dance and
00:22 maybe cause some of that chaos in the opening weekend or two?
00:25 >> I'm gonna give you one that I just, I'm just falling in love with this team.
00:29 And it's New Mexico.
00:30 I just think the way that Richard Pitino has his team playing,
00:34 particularly outside the pit, and their odds are in the national championship,
00:37 folks, at 75 to 1.
00:39 To me, offensively, they just do enough at the 72nd percentile.
00:44 They don't do a lot of things that I would say that are deficient.
00:48 If you look at the play types, how they get into their offense,
00:52 there's nothing that is poor except for isolation basketball.
00:55 And that's 2.9% of their possessions.
00:58 They shoot the ball well.
00:59 But then if you start to look at the other side, on the defensive end of the floor,
01:03 that's where you see a lot of excellence.
01:05 Field goal percentage, there's 86 percentile.
01:08 Jump shots, 96 percentile.
01:10 So to me, you look for a sleeper team that has the metrics offensively and
01:14 defensively that can make a run.
01:17 To me, it's the Lobos of New Mexico.
01:18 >> When you look at the metrics for New Mexico as well,
01:21 to highlight your point here, J.Y., New Mexico ranks in the top 25 of the net, 22nd.
01:26 They won the Mountain West Conference Tournament title.
01:29 The selection committee told us, had the Lobos not made that run in their own
01:32 conference tournament, they might not be dancing into the NCAA tournament,
01:37 which I think would be false.
01:38 But New Mexico proved that, of course.
01:40 They were the sixth seed in a very competitive Mountain West Conference
01:43 tournament and made it all the way to the championship game,
01:46 knocking off San Diego State, under in five of their final six games before
01:51 the big dance.
01:52 The reason I highlight that, a little bit of a juxtaposition.
01:55 Mexico plays at a very fast pace, eighth fastest in the country, but
01:59 a top 25 defense around the nation as well.
02:03 An 11 seed in the West region, but it's 75 to 1 to win a national championship.
02:08 It pairs up very well with a Cinderella team, but
02:11 as the odds makers see it, optimistic on their price.
02:14 We have seen five 11 seeds in the history of the big dance advance to a final four.
02:20 It is not out of the realm of imagination.
02:23 [MUSIC]