March Madness Pick: 16 Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers at 16 New Orleans Privateers

Two potential 16th seeds in the East, the Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers (19-15 Overall, 14-4 NEC) and 16 New Orleans Privateers (20-11 Overall, 13-5 SLC), tipoff the 2017 version of March Madness. The game will be played on Tuesday, March 14 at 6:40 p.m. ET. This game will determine who gets to play the top seed in the East. With the initial spread just being posted, our Mount St. Mary’s plays New Orleans March Madness free pick has the Privateers favored by 1.5 points.

Mount St. Mary’s comes to this game after having beaten St. Francis 71-61 to win the Northeast Conference title about a week ago. It’s the first time in 21 years that Mountaineers took the conference tournament. In the win, Elijah Long scored 24 points while Junior Robinson put in 22. In the Southland Tournament, New Orleans managed a 68-65 OT win over Texas A&M Corpus Christie. In that OT, the Privateers scored eight while Corpus Christie scored five. Tevin Broyles scored 15 for New Orleans in the win, including five in OT.

16 Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers

The Mountaineers have three fine scoring guards and two guys who can be massive in the paint. The top player, guard Elijah Long hits threes at the rate of 40% and is averaging 15.4 PPG and 4.4 APG. Also in the backcourt, Junior Robinson can hit from downtown. He’s averaging 14.1 PPG. Guard Miles Wilson is contributing 11.3 PPG.

In the frontcourt, forward Chris Ray is bringing down 5.9 RPG while hitting 58%. In the paint, center Madow Sallah is tossing in 52% while capturing 5,4 RPG. Together they are averaging 13.2 PPG. This team can hit threes at the rate of 38%, which is six percentage points better than the Privateers.

16 New Orleans Privateers

Senior forward Erik Thomas is the lynchpin of this offense. He’s hitting 60% of his shots while averaging just over 19 points per game. Also upfront, Travin Thibodeaux is a massive rebounder, pulling down 7.5 rebounds per game and scoring 8.6. He’s knocking down 51% of his shots.

Top scorers in the backcourt are Christavious Gill and Nate Frye. Gill is hitting 38% and Frye 44%. Together they’re averaging 22 PPG. New Orleans lacks a major three-point shooter but they’re field goal average is three percentage points better than the Mountaineers and frees are four points better.

Mount St. Mary’s Plays New Orleans March Madness Free Pick

The Privateers are +5 in points, +6 in rebounds and +5 in assists. In our Mount St. Mary’s plays New Orleans March Madness free pick, we feel that the Privateers have an advantage. We’re taking New Orleans at -1.5. The game will be played at Dayton, Ohio with a tipoff at 6:40 p.m. ET.

Mount St. Mary’s Plays New Orleans March Madness Free Pick: Privateers at -1.5.