COACH: John Dunne, five years at Saint Peter's, first NCAA tournament appearance.
HOW THEY GOT IN: Automatic bid (MAAC tournament champions).
GO-TO GUYS: Saint Peter's has four key seniors and all have taken their turns being the offensive hero. G Wesley Jenkins is the household name in MAAC country. He was the only Peacock in the top 10 in the MAAC in scoring; at 12.8 points per game, he was ninth. Jenkins also finished the MAAC tournament ranked in the top 25 in the country in 3-point field-goal percentage at 41.8. Forward Ryan Bacon was second in the league in offensive rebounds (3.8 per game) and field goal percentage (52.3), tied for third in blocked shots (2.1 per game) and fourth in overall rebounding (7.5 per game). Guard Nick Leon was second in free throw percentage at 84.7 percent. Bottom line: it's balance that gets it done for Dunne's team.
X FACTOR: Senior forward Jeron Belin was the offensive star of the conference tournament, coming off the bench and in three games put up 17, 15 and then 17 points in the title game. Belin was the team's second-leading scorer in the regular season but rarely showed that kind of scoring consistency for a prolonged stretch. If he can provide that kind of scoring punch as a complement to the team's core, Dunne might shorten his rotation to give the Peacocks a puncher's chance.
STRENGTHS: The Peacocks won the program's first MAAC crown since 1995 by playing in-your-shirt defense. In the MAAC championship game, Saint Peter's held Iona, which was averaging almost 80 points per game, to a season-low 57 points and 16.7 percent shooting from 3-point range (3 of 18). It wasn't just a one-time Ziploc effort from SPC. The Peacocks were second in the MAAC and 12th in the nation in scoring defense, first in the conference and second in the country in field goal percentage defense and leading the MAAC and 22nd in the nation in 3-point percentage defense. They were second in the MAAC in blocked shots and third in steals and defensive rebounds. The Peacocks can shoot the 3 -- Jenkins was second in the league in 3-pointers and tied for fifth in 3-point percentage.
WEAKNESSES: The primary rotation doesn't include any player taller than 6-foot-7 but that didn't come into play in a small league. No doubt it will when the Peacocks join the big boys. Scoring was a weakness in general -- in nine of the team's 13 losses this season, SPC scored less than 60 points -- with a 61.4 per-game average. The Peacocks were last in the MAAC in free throw percentage and ranked 308th in the country in field goal percentage.
