3 Things About Thursday's NCAA Tournament Game

2019 NCAA Tournament Championship [10] Seton Hall Pirates (20-13, 9-9 BIG EAST) vs. [7] Wofford Terriers (29-4, 18-0 Southern Conference)
Date/Time/Location	Thursday, March 21 \| 9:40 p.m. \| Madison Square Garden (New York, N.Y.)
Television Broadcast	CBS \| March Madness Live
Radio Broadcast	AM970 The Answer
Game Notes	Seton Hall \| Wofford
Links	Live Stats \| Twitter \| Facebook \| Instagram
Pregame Reception	Sign Up for Pirate Blue's Pregame Reception in Jacksonville

No matter what anyone externally has said over the last 12 months, the goal was always simple: return to the NCAA Tournament.

Seton Hall always had the talent to get back to the NCAA Tournament for a fourth straight year. The Pirates just needed to prove people wrong. And they did that with aplomb.

They defeated Kentucky on a neutral court. They knocked off Maryland on the road. They have home wins over Marquette and Villanova and then defeated Marquette on a neutral court. Those four teams are all No. 6 seeds and higher in this NCAA Tournament. They own 14 "Quad 1+2" wins, they own 16 KenPom Top 100 wins.

This team proved that it belongs.

Now the goal shifts. The Pirates have an opportunity to play for a national championship, and the difficult path to that championship begins Thursday against a very good Wofford team that has won 20 games in a row and is the 2019 Southern Conference champion. The Terriers are one of the best offensive teams in the country and will be a challenge for Seton Hall's outstanding defense.

The Terriers are the favorites in this game, but the Pirates have been here before. They know what it's like to be doubted. It's time to put all of that aside and just keep doing all the great things that they've been doing that helped them reach the first goal.

Thursday's game will air nationally on CBS with Ian Eagle and Jim Spanarkel as the broadcast team and Jamie Erdahl as the sideline reporter. Calling their sixth NCAA Tournament together on the radio are Gary Cohen and Dave Popkin on AM970 The Answer.

We're one day closer to our first-round #MarchMadness game! Check out some of the quotes that came out of yesterday's media availability. #HALLin pic.twitter.com/z2f0I5Jil8
— Seton Hall Basketball (@SetonHallMBB) March 19, 2019

Three Things to Know About Thursday's NCAA Tournament First Round

1. Wofford Can Shoot
Wofford's effective field goal percentage is 57.8 percent, which is fourth-best in the nation. Its three-point shooting percentage is 41.6 percent, which is the second-best in the country. That's out of 353 Div. I teams. The Terriers can shoot the basketball, and the Pirates will need to play their best perimeter defense of the season to contain this offense. It'll start with good ball pressure and getting around screens. It continues with blanketing the best of Wofford's shooters, Fletcher Magee, who is only three three-pointers away from becoming the NCAA's all-time career leader. He averages 4.6 made threes per game. Wild.

2. Where's the Weakness?
Wofford's numbers are all crazy good. Is that because the Terriers dominated the Southern Conference? We're not sure. But we can point to this: Wofford averages only 10.9 turnovers a game, and that number slightly swells to 13.4 against opponents from "Basketball Six" conferences. Wofford committed 18 turnovers against Kansas, which stands as its season worst. Can the Pirates use their defensive prowess, length and athleticism to force the Terriers into giving away the basketball? The Pirates' offense thrives when they play great defense.

3. Does Experience Matter?
Seton Hall has four players on its roster with NCAA Tournament experience, all starters, in Myles Powell, Myles Cale, Sandro Mamukelashvili and Michael Nzei. Wofford has zero unless you count Cameron Jackson, who was on the 2015 Wofford team that went to the NCAA Tournament but did not play in the game. The Pirates have been here before and have won a game. Wofford has talented student-athletes who have not been here before and the program has never won a tournament game. Can The Hall use this experience to its advantage? Only time will tell.