Sweet 16: American beats Big 12 (MAAC, MWC eliminated)

In Memphis, the Cincinnati duo of Sean Kilpatrick and Justin Jackson dominated their Big 12 counterparts to lead the American Athletic Conference to a 75-66 win. The Oklahoma State duo of Marcus Smart (outdueled Louisville’s Russ Smith) and Markel Brown (team-high 10 points) did their part, but it was not enough as the American had a much easier time than they did in their previous one-point win over the MWC.The Elite 8 game was set up by the best showdown of the tournament, as the American won a 73-72 Sweet 16 victory over a great MWC team on the basis of Shabazz Napier (UConn shooting guard) and Shaq Goodwin (Memphis center). 

Value Add rates the New Mexico trio of Kendall Williams, Cameron Bairstow and Alex Kirk as the best trio in the country, and they were almost enough to send the conference to the Elite 8.

In the mock tournament, all 32 conferences were seeded based on their ratings at www.kenpom.com, and then sent to their likely 2014 tournament sites. The top 10 players to date from each conference were pitted against their counterpart using the Value Add Predictor to determine how many points each player would score against his counterpart, with the winning team advancing. All players can be looked up at www.valueaddbasketball.com. The following is the Elite 8 box score, followed by the box scores for the two Sweet 16 games that set up the Elite 8 showdown: 

All-Star (1st 5 starters) B12 66 Elite 8 All-Star (1st 5 starters) Amer 75
Marcus Smart Oklahoma St. 7 PG Russ Smith Louisville 6
Juwan Staten West Virginia 8 SG Shabazz Napier Connecticut 9
Markel Brown Oklahoma St. 10 SF Sean Kilpatrick Cincinnati 13
Dustin Hogue Iowa St. 9 PF TaShawn Thomas Houston 10
Joel Embiid Kansas 8 C Shaq Goodwin Memphis 4
Kyan Anderson Texas Christian 4 PG-bu Joe Jackson Memphis 6
Brady Heslip Baylor 5 SG-bu Chris Jones Louisville 6
Jaye Crockett Texas Tech 7 SF-bu Dalton Pepper Temple 8
Perry Ellis Kansas 5 PF-bu Montrezl Harrell Louisville 6
Andrew Wiggins Kansas 3 C-bu Justin Jackson Cincinnati 7

All-Star (1st 5 starters) B12 84 Sweet 16 All-Star (1st 5 starters) MAAC 67
Marcus Smart Oklahoma St. 9 PG Billy Baron Canisius 7
Juwan Staten West Virginia 11 SG Zaid Hearst Quinnipiac 10
Markel Brown Oklahoma St. 14 SF Sean Armand Iona 12
Dustin Hogue Iowa St. 10 PF George Beamon Manhattan 11
Joel Embiid Kansas 10 C Jordan Heath Canisius 4
Kyan Anderson Texas Christian 5 PG-bu Michael Alvarado Manhattan 3
Brady Heslip Baylor 6 SG-bu Emmy Andujar Manhattan 4
Jaye Crockett Texas Tech 6 SF-bu Deon Jones Monmouth 5
Perry Ellis Kansas 8 PF-bu Daniel Stewart Rider 7
Andrew Wiggins Kansas 5 C-bu Rhamel Brown Manhattan 4

All-Star (1st 5 starters) Amer 73 Sweet 16 All-Star (1st 5 starters) MWC 72
Russ Smith Louisville 11 PG Deonte Burton Nevada 11
Shabazz Napier Connecticut 9 SG Xavier Thames San Diego St. 7
Sean Kilpatrick Cincinnati 12 SF Kendall Williams New Mexico 12
TaShawn Thomas Houston 8 PF Larry Nance Wyoming 9
Shaq Goodwin Memphis 10 C Cameron Bairstow New Mexico 7
Joe Jackson Memphis 3 PG-bu Derrick Marks Boise St. 3
Chris Jones Louisville 6 SG-bu Jeff Elorriaga Boise St. 5
Dalton Pepper Temple 6 SF-bu Khem Birch Nevada Las Vegas 6
Montrezl Harrell Louisville 5 PF-bu Ryan Watkins Boise St. 4
Justin Jackson Cincinnati 3 C-bu Alex Kirk New Mexico 8

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