No. 12 seed UC Santa Barbara (22-4) vs. No. 5 seed Creighton (20-8)
NCAA Tournament First Round, Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis; Saturday, 2:30 p.m. EDT
BOTTOM LINE: UC Santa Barbara is set to face Creighton in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament. UC Santa Barbara knocked off UC Irvine by 16 in its last outing, while Creighton fell to Georgetown in its most recent game, 73-48.
SAVVY SENIORS: Creighton's Damien Jefferson, Denzel Mahoney and Mitch Ballock have collectively scored 45 percent of the team's points this season, including 38 percent of all Bluejays scoring over the last five games.
KEY FACILITATOR: Marcus Zegarowski has made or assisted on 43 percent of all Creighton field goals over the last three games. The junior guard has accounted for 20 field goals and 12 assists in those games.
SCORING THRESHOLDS: Creighton is 13-0 when it limits opposing offenses to 68 or fewer points, and 7-8 when opponents exceed 68 points. UC Santa Barbara is 18-0 when holding opponents to 66 points or fewer, and 4-4 on the year when teams score any more than 66.
ASSIST DISTRIBUTION: The Bluejays have recently created buckets via assists more often than the Gauchos. Creighton has 41 assists on 75 field goals (54.7 percent) over its past three matchups while UC Santa Barbara has assists on 34 of 80 field goals (42.5 percent) during its past three games.
DID YOU KNOW: Creighton is ranked second among Big East teams with an average of 77 points per game.
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This was generated by Automated Insights,
