The NCAA Tournament starts with the second round on Thursday and one of the early matchups has the UAB Blazers and the Iowa State Cyclones playing in a south region 14-seed against a 3-seed matchup and the game is from the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky as March Madness gets underway and things are streaming live past 12:40 pm ET on truTV from the NCAA main website.
Iowa State comes in as one of the top offensive teams in the nation, as they are ranked 14th in scoring with 78 points per game this season. Georges Niang is leading the team in scoring this season and he is also second in assists and rebounds per game. The Cyclones are ranked 11th in assists per game and they are in the top 20 in field goal percentage as well. Fred Hoiberg things his team can make a strong run, as they have been battle tested while coming out of a tough conference in the Big 12.
Iowa State has been strong rebounding the ball on defense, but overall they have not been great and if they get past UAB they will have to improve on that end. Niang dealt with an injury last year and that left him out after the opening round for the team and they ended up going to the Sweet 16, where they lost to UConn. The team has Niang back and they are coming in after winning the Big 12 tournament for the second straight season.
The University of Alabama-Birmingham Blazers come in from Conference USA and they won their spot after taking down Middle Tennessee. The Blazers are a tough team to matchup with, as they move the ball well and can rebound on offense and they also are ranked in the top 20 in blocks per game. The team comes in after going 12-6 in their conference and they were 19-15 overall this season.
UAB won its final three games of the season in the conference tournament and before that they had previously lost two in a row. Overall the team has won six of eight coming into the tournament and they will need some momentum to help get past a tough team like Iowa State. The cyclones come in after winning five games in a row to end the season and that included two wins over ranked Oklahoma and a win against Kansas in the conference title game.
Check here for the UAB Blazers and the Iowa State Cyclones live coverage.
