A Synopsis Of Today's Sweet 16 Games For Concordia And Bethel

Concordia will face off against a talent-laden Johns Hopkins team this afternoon in the first Sweet 16 game out at Scranton, PA.

As we brace for a classic March blizzard (what else would you expect at tournament time?) here in the Twin Cities, it's time to take a peek at the Sweet 16 games for both Concordia and Bethel later on this afternoon and this evening.  It's just so awesome to see not just one but TWO MIAC teams making deep runs into the Dance and as you all well know, when you get to this stage of the NCAA Tournament, anything can happen.  This time of the year is all about survival so let's take a look at the two games and a closer look at the opponents.

Concordia vs Johns Hopkins (at Scranton, PA 3:30 PM Central time)

First, for Concordia, they'll take on highly-regarded Johns Hopkins out of the Centennial Conference with a sparkling 27-1 record with the only blemish coming against Gettysburg back on 3-1 and there's a reason they came into the Dance ranked fifth in the nation and in the number five spot in the NPI rankings as well.  Uh, they're really, REALLY good.  And it should come as no surprise that they were first in the Centennial Conference in total offense and second in total defense either.  The Blue Jays have an interesting mix of youth and experience and they've got a nice combination of size down low and speed and quickness in the backcourt.  What's really interesting is that on the scoring front - just from looking at the team stats - they're very-well balanced.  Junior guard Lauren Knudson leads the way for the Blue Jays with her 9.9 ppg but right behind her is senior guard Kendall Dunham (9.4 ppg).  Freshman post Jocelyn Goldstein out of Philadelphia and fellow freshman guard Faith Williamson both average 9.1 ppg and junior guard Layla Henderson isn't far behind with her 8.1 ppg.  And you've got contributors off the bench as well in senior guard Macie Feldman (7.5 ppg) and senior forward Emily Collins (7.2 ppg) just to name the primary two so this Johns Hopkins team definitely knows how to spread the wealth.  And the aforementioned Feldman leads the team in rebounds at a 9.0 average and the aforementioned Collins isn't too shabby in that department either with an average of 7.6 rebounds per game.  In fact, when you go through the conference statistics, the only area where the Blue Jays lag is from the charity stripe where they were seventh in the conference in that department which is a bit of a surprise.  But obviously they've found more than enough ways to work around that and not many teams can say that.  Head Coach Rodney Rogan is in his third season with this Johns Hopkins program and each season he's had this team in the NCAA Tournament so they know what this experience is about.  I haven't seen the Vegas line for this game and although the smart money might be riding on the Blue Jays on this one, it's still there for the Cobbers to pull off a major upset but they've got to find a way to throw caution to the wind and take some calculated risks at certain times as well.  If they show the same sense of urgency that they showed this last Saturday night in that fourth period against Ripon and if they shoot the ball as well they did in that fourth quarter, they will at least give themselves a fighting chance and now that they've got to this point, they've really got nothing to lose now.  

Bethel vs Washington & Lee (at Lexington, VA 7:00 PM Central time)

Bethel meanwhile finds themselves out at Lexington, VA; the home of the ODAC champs Washington & Lee and, like the Blue Jays, the Generals are really up there as well as they had a final overall ranking of third in the country and number three in the NPI rankings as well and they come into this game with a perfect 30-0 record and no, that's no mistype either.  But there's several reasons as to how/why the Generals got to their current lofty status; the primary one being preseason first team All-American senior combo forward/post Mary Schleusner and the fact that she leads her team in scoring by averaging 21.0 ppg should come as no surprise I suppose.  She's just flat out awesome to put it mildly.  But it's not like she doesn't get help as she most certainly does.  Fellow senior guard Quinn McGuinness (9.8 ppg) and fellow senior forward Sarah Zimmerman (9.7 ppg) both do their part on the scoring front.  Junior combo guard/forward Riley Bryant at 5'11" is a bad matchup for many opponents in the backcourt and freshman point guard Sam Collins is the newbie of the primary chain gang for Washington & Lee.  And the Generals have plenty of replacement parts coming off the bench in sophomore guard Megan Zimmerman, junior guard Raine Zou, senior guard Icy Keneah and lanky junior guard Caroline Shimp just to name a few.  So by this point you're probably thinking to yourself, "This team is loaded".  Well, your thinking is spot on with mine.  I guess it should come as no surprise then that the Generals are tops in the ODAC in total team offense (duh) and second in total team defense and tops in margin of victory not to mention tops in total team rebounds thanks to Ms Schleusner & Co.  And per conference statistics, Washington & Lee is pretty solid from the charity stripe as well.  The only real surprise for me came when I saw that the Generals were seventh in the ODAC in team three-point FG percentage but it looks like they've found more ways than one to overcome that particular deficiency.  And in her second season of being at the helm of this Washington & Lee program, Head Coach Brittney Kemp certainly hasn't missed a beat.  Maybe it's not the best analogy here but in some ways, I feel like Bethel is in the same position as my Los Angeles Rams were when they played Pittsburgh in Super Bowl 14 in Pasadena and were decided underdogs but came within a hair of pulling off a huge upset.  Somebody for Bethel has to step up like Vince Ferragamo did on that day for the Rams and do whatever it takes to help will their team to get into a position to win this game and the Royals have those kinds of players too.

So that's how I see things on lunchtime on this Friday afternoon.  ROLL COBBS and GO ROYALS!