Championship Season is in Full Swing
With Selection Sunday less than a week away, five teams have already punched their ticket for the field of 68; Longwood, Loyola Chicago, Murray State, Georgia State, and Chattanooga. The most recent team to clinch their spot in the tournament was the Chattanooga Mocs, on an insane buzzer beater from near-half-court to beat Furman 64-63 in overtime.
Currently projected as a #13 seed in Joe Lunardi’s most recent bracketology, Chattanooga is a team that no #4 seed wants to see in the first round. What is it that makes the Mocs so enticing as a potential upset in the round of 64?
Malachi Smith is an Elite Scorer
Last season, it was Max Abmas who led a small school on an incredible March Madness run. Malachi Smith has all the tools to do the same for Chattanooga in 2021-2022. Smith is a 6’4” sophomore guard who ranks #4 in the entire NCAA in points scored. While it was David Jean-Baptiste who hit the buzzer beater to shock Furman, it is Malachi Smith who is the leader of the team. Much like Abmas for Oral Roberts last year, Smith has the ability to carry the Mocs offense on his back and could easily pop off for 30+ points in the first round.
Malachi Smith leads the Mocs in points per game (20.4) and assists per game (3.1). He also leads Chattanooga in steals with 55 this season and is a prolific rebounding guard who pulls down 6.7 rebounds a night, making him incredibly valuable on both sides of the floor. On the year, Smith has tremendous shooting splits of 51.1/41.7/83.1, meaning not only is he a high-volume shooter, but also a highly-efficient one. Smith has 16 games this season with 20+ points on 50% or better shooting, including a game against a locked-in tournament team, Murray State, where he exploded for 36 points on 14/17 shooting.
Silvio De Sousa Will be the X-Factor
Malachi Smith is Chattanooga’s best player, however the biggest x-factor and reason that the Mocs could pull off a first-round upset is ex-University of Kansas big, Silvio De Sousa. He has had one of the craziest college-basketball timelines of all-time, leading him to Chattanooga. His collegiate career started by joining the Jayhawks in the middle of his freshman season to become a rotation piece on their Final Four team in 2017-2018, holding his own against Wendell Carter Jr. and Marvin Bagley III in the Elite Eight, both of which were first round NBA selections.
He was then forced to sit out the entire 2018-2019 season due to the NCAA-Adidas scandal, only for him to return in 2019-2020 and see his rotation minutes drastically reduced. His season was cut short when Kansas suspended him indefinitely for the brawl in Lawrence against K-State, where he threw several punches and picked up a chair before being restrained. De Sousa then announced on October 16th, 2020 that he was opting out of the 2020-2021 season. Nine-months later, he transferred to Chattanooga for his final year of eligibility.
In 2021-2022, Silvio De Sousa is averaging a team high 6.7 rebounds per game and team high 1.1 blocks per game for the Mocs. On top of this, he is scoring 10.8 points on 56.8% shooting in just 19.7 minutes per game. He has dealt with some injuries this season, but looks to be healthy entering March Madness. In the Southern Conference Championship, De Sousa played a season-high 30 minutes and recorded an impressive double-double with 17 points and 14 rebounds. He has proven that he can go toe-to-toe with top-tier college bigs, so if he is healthy and effective, Chattanooga has both the guards and inside presence to complete an upset.