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NCAA Tournament Cheat Sheets: Get to know Lehigh

Patriot Lehigh Bucknell Basketball

Lehigh’s C.J. McCollum (3) moves around a Bucknell defender during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in the men’s Patriot League tournament title matchup in Lewisburg, Pa., on Wednesday, March 7, 2012. (AP Photo/Ralph Wilson)

AP

Read through the rest of the NCAA Tournament Cheat Sheets here.

Conference: Patriot League

Coach: Brett Reed

Record: 26-7, 11-3 (2nd)

Rankings and Ratings:

- Kenpom: 81
- RPI: 107
- AP/Coaches: Unranked

Seeding?: Lehigh is probably going to end up being one of the last teams slotted. At best, they are probably looking at a 14 or a 15 seed.

Names to know: CJ McCollum (21.7 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 3.5 apg), Gabe Knutson (11.8 ppg, 5.5 rpg)

Stats to know: McCollum is using an absurdly high 32.0% usage rate. What that means is that a third of Lehigh’s possessions end with McCollum -- whether is be a shot or a turnover. In other words, the Mountainhawks run their offense through him. A lot.

Tendencies: Lehigh likes to get out and run. They are 52nd in the nation in pace, meaning that they are more comfortable playing at a faster tempo. They are also fairly adept at forcing turnovers. They don’t necessarily play defense in the full court, but they do put ball pressure on their opponent. Oh, and CJ McCollum takes a lot of shots.

Big wins, bad losses: Lehigh beat Bucknell twice and Wagner once. They didn’t have any notable losses.

How’d they get here?: The two seed in the conference tournament, Lehigh ran through American in the semis before winning on Bucknell’s home floor in the final.

Outlook: It is going to take a borderline-miracle for Lehigh to pull off an upset in the first round of the tournament. But CJ McCollum is a future pro, whether it is in the NBA or overseas. He can go for 35 on a given night. If he gets it going offensively and Lehigh is able to hang around for long enough ... who knows?

Rob Dauster is the editor of the college basketball website Ballin’ is a Habit. You can find him on twitter @robdauster.