MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Devin Williams kept inadvertently referring to West Virginia’s NCAA first-round opponent as “Stephen A.” instead Stephen F. Austin.
“I don’t know how to say their name, and I’m not even trying to be funny,” he said Sunday night. “We just need to get some film and prepare for them Austin people from Texas.”
At least Williams got the state right.
Here’s a primer on the 14th-seeded Lumberjacks (27-5), who face West Virginia on Friday at 7 p.m. in Brooklyn:
League: SFA rolled through the Southland Conference season at 18-0 before tacking on two easy tournament wins. Count ’em up, that’s a 20-game win streak. All three of Stephen F. Austin’s top-100 wins came against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
Nonconference rewind: Of the four road losses, two came against teams in the NCAA field, Baylor (97-55) and Northern Iowa (70-60), a third against Conference-USA champ UAB (76-66), and another at Arizona State (80-73). By far the most glaring loss came when SFA blew a 26-point lead in a Nashville tournament against Tulane and fell 60-59.
RPI: 61
Coach: Brad Underwood, 52, has produced three NCAA bids in his first three seasons as a head coach, not to mention an 88-13 record. He was hired onto Bob Huggins’ staff at K-State in 2006 and stayed with Frank Martin through seven more seasons in Manhattan and one at South Carolina.
After guiding the 12th-seeded Lumberjacks to an upset of VCU in the 2014 NCAAs, Underwood declined the job at Marshall. In last season’s opening round, SFA fell to fifth-seeded Utah 57-50.
Standouts: Their strength comes from three senior ringleaders—6-4 guard Thomas Walkup (17.5 points, 6.8 rebounds, 4.5 assists) 5-11 guard Demetrious Floyd (13.8 points, 42 percent on 3s) and 6-5 forward Clide Geffrard (13.4 points, 5.9 rebounds).
Game plan: While West Virginia forces 18.15 turnovers per game, that ranks second nationally to SFA’s 18.63. The Lumberjacks are second in Division I in assists, seventh in steals, 14th in scoring defense and 18th in field-goal percentage.
Line: SFA opened as 6-point underdog.