Bracket Busters (Definitely! Maybe?) #4

May I please present to you...the pride of the Sun Belt Conference...the South Alabama Jaguars!

I'm not exactly covering new ground by picking this team. But I alluded to the fact that they would be one of my five Bracket Buster teams, and I needed to get their profile in this blog while they are still alive in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament. Don't get me wrong...I have complete confidence that South Alabama will win their conference tourney, but in the off-chance that they don't...I didn't want to look like a complete nimrod and write this profile as they were waiting around for an at-large bid (which they would most likely get). South Alabama is located in Mobile, a city where THIS made the local news. Yikes! I'm sorry, I can't let Mobile go out like that (especially since I'm pimping their local hoops squad). So I'll mention that "Mobile Bay" is a song by the legend Johny Cash, and that the city has two (count 'em two) nicknames: The Port City and/or The City of Six Flags. This is all fun, but let's get down to why I like this South Alabama team to potentially win a game or two in the NCAA Tournament.

• South Alabama went 25-5 overall this year, with a 16-2 record in the Sun Belt Conference. Not too shabby. They won non-conference games against Mississippi State and San Diego; and have a quality loss (if that's possible), losing to Vandy by 3 in double overtime.
• The mascots for South Alabama athletic squads are South Paw and Miss Pawla. (I'm not making this stuff up)
• Senior guard Demetric Bennett is outstanding and has the ability to take over a game at anytime. Bennett scored 20 or more points in a game seventeen times this season.
• Head coach, Ronnie Arrow, was named the Sun Belt coach of the year.
• South Alabama's RPI number is 27! That's really really good, especially for a mid-major team. An RPI of 27 puts them ahead of NCAA Tournament locks such as: Gonzaga, Purdue, and USC. This is in a league that ranked 15 out of 32 in Conference RPI. So the Jaguars obviously did some work outside of their conference to get a number that high.
• When it comes to winning games in the Big Dance, I'm a HUGE fan of any team that can bring outstanding guard play to the table. South Alabama can do just this with the aforementioned Bennett, as well as Daon Merritt. Both made all-conference teams and both are seniors. I really feel good about that combination when it's time to start sniffing out potential Cinderella teams.
• Western Kentucky is probably their biggest threat in the Conference Tournament. But South Alabama matches up against them rather well and has already defeated them twice during the regular season.
• It's time again for my favorite running segment!!! Some notable South Alabama alumni include: former United States Congressman Herbert L. "Sonny" Callahan (insert any Godfater joke/reference/quote here), golfer Heath Slocum, and a BUNCH of major league baseball players, such as - Luis Gonzalez, Marlon Anderson, (former Pittsburgh Pirate) Jon Lieber, and Juan Pierre.

Watch out for the South Alabama Jaguars. They should be good for at least one win in the NCAA Tournament, maybe even two. The problem is that they might be good enough to get an 8 or a 9 seed, in which case they would play a #1 seed in the second round. Remember...you heard it here first before the brackets and seedings ever came out.