March Madness 2013: Pacific Tigers are in the NCAA Tournament

Conference/Record: Big West (22-12)

Location: Stockton, CA

Famous Alums/Attendees: Superagent Scott Boras, former NBA #1 overall pick Michael Olawakandi, former Raiders Head Coaches Hue Jackson and Tom Flores. Jon Gruden, who also coached the Raiders, was a graduate assistant at Pacific in 1989.

Social Media: The official account for the Pacific Tiger’s Men’s Basketball Teams is @PacificMensBB.

Random Fun Fact: UoP’s campus, with its brick buildings, iconic tower, and numerous trees has been the stand-in for East Coast Ivy Leagues colleges in several Hollywood films. Some of the movies filmed on campus include Raiders of the Lost Ark, Dead Man on Campus, and The Sure Thing.

Tournament History/Most Recent: This will be the Tigers’ 9th appearance in the NCAA Tournament. They are 4-9 all-time – with a 3OT loss to Pitt coming in their most recent appearance (2006).

Good Wins/Bad Losses: Pacific won two games in Anaheim against quality competition (Xavier, Saint Marys) – but they lost too many road games to subpar Big West teams (UCSB, Hawaii) to be a real threat in the tournament.

Notable Player(s): The tigers are very balanced – 8 guys play between 15 and 30 minutes a game – and they’re leading scorer (Lorenzo McCloud) averages 11.4 ppg.

All-Important Rankings: 99 (RPI), 121 (Pomeroy), 96 (Seven Overtimes)

Outlook/Seed: If the Tigers are lucky, they’ll be a fourteen seed and hope to stick around against a 3-seed. Without knowing their opponent, and based only on SevenOvertimes rankings, they should be a 9 point underdog, which translates loosely to a 13% chance of advancing to the weekend.

Other Tournament Profiles:

James Madison
Florida Gulf Coast
Harvard
Liberty
Creighton
Belmont
Bucknell
Gonzaga
Saint Louis
Albany