UNC-Wilmington Seahawks vs Iowa State Cyclones: Game preview and prediction

The road to a third straight NCAA tournament berth begins on Sunday afternoon when the Iowa State host UNC-Wilmington (0-1), who lost by the score of 82-39 against Iowa on Friday night.

That’s pretty much all I need to say.

Mar 22, 2013; Dayton, OH, USA; Iowa State Cyclones band performs against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the second half during the second round of the 2013 NCAA tournament at University of Dayton Arena. Mandatory Credit: Frank Victores-USA TODAY Sports

UNC-Wilmington Seahawks vs Iowa State Cyclones

Hilton Coliseum | Ames, Iowa
Tipoff – Sunday, 12:00 PM CT | TV: Cyclones.tv/Mediacom

Who in the hell are the Seahawks?

UNC-Wilmington is a part of the Colonial Athletic Association, and had their best seasons in the first half of the 2000 decade going to three NCAA tournaments between 2001 and 2006. Since then, they lost their head coach, Brad Brownell that accumulated an 83-40 record, and have gone 66-119 with three different head coaches.

What to watch for

The Seahawks lost senior Keith Rendleman, arguably their best player last year, but do have four other starters returning. That didn’t seem to matter much when they got their doors blown off by the Iowa Hawkeyes, shooting just 22.2 percent from the floor, 2 of 23 from the perimeter, and had 14 turnovers.

Cedrick Williams will try to replace Rendleman, and had a good start with 15 points and nine rebounds in the loss. Chris Dixon will be the one to watch at point guard, who averaged 9.8 points and 3.3 assists per game last season, but he went 0 for 9 from the field and made two free throws, had four assists, and five turnovers.

Prediction

If Iowa State starts like they did against Augustana in their exhibition game, then things will be interesting for about five minutes.

IA ST 83, UNCW 38 (see what i did there?)