Team: SMU Seed: #6 in the South Region Conference: American Players to Watch: PG Nic Moore, F Markus Kennedy, C Yanick Moreira Team Stats: Wins VS Tournament Teams: #12 Wyoming (Home, 66-53) #13 Eastern Washington (Home, 77-68), #15 Texas Southern (Home, 72-59) Losses VS Tournament Teams: #2 Gonzaga (Road, 72-56), #5 Arkansas (Home, 78-72), #8 Cincinnati (Road, 56-50; Home, 62-54) #10 Indiana (Road, 74-68) Strength: Defense Take the losses to tourney teams with a grain of salt. SMU is coming into the tournament hot, especially on the defensive end. This team really hangs their hat on superior defense. 25th in the country, giving up 59.8 points per game. Moreira averages a modest 1.2 blocks per game for a big man (just shy of 7 ft) but has enough length that will make any driving guard or posting forward think twice about their shot. Partnered up with Kennedy, Ben Moore, or 6 ft 10 in Cannen Cunningham, SMU has a quality defensive interior. Weakness: 3-PT Shooting. SMU attempts the LEAST amount of 3-PT field goals of any team in the tourney. With the exception of Moore (174 attempts this season), no player on the squad has attempted more than 70 3's. What does this mean? When SMU falls behind, they stay behind. For example, take the Gonzaga game early in the season. SMU were down by 10 at half and were only able to get within 8 before being blown away. However, Nic Moore is special, and has the ability to lead a comeback by shooting a strong .408% from behind the arc. Do not be surprised to see him play all 40 minutes as he did in the AAC Tournament. Wild Card: FT-Shooting. SMU is top 50 in free throw attempts making 529/750 (.705 %). They have some excellent FT shooters in Nic Moore (.885 %) and guard Keith Frazier (.810 %). The ability for SMU to find victory often falls on the performance of their big men at the charity stripe. Kennedy (.641 %), Moreira (.659 %), Moore (.681 %), and Cunningham (.736 %) can hit at higher then their average, but they have to get to the line to get the chance. With the exception of Cunningham, they have all had more than 100 attempts this season. SMU needs to convert at the line to win.