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Who is Weber State?

One of my favorite all-time NCAA tournament Cinderellas is back in my life, and I hope they go down in flames this time.

Joel Bolomboy and the Wildcats will be Xavier's first opponent.
Joel Bolomboy and the Wildcats will be Xavier's first opponent.
Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports

If you're about my age and have always loved college basketball, you were introduced to Weber State in 1999:

Behind 36/3/1 from star forward Harold "The Show" Arceneaux, the Wildcats stunned three seed North Carolina in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Now they're back and lined up to face Xavier. Here's a quick look at what this year's Weber State squad looks like.

Resume vitals

RPI: 108 v. top 100: 1-2
KenPom: 132 Road/neutral: 13-7
Best win: South Dakota State (RPI 31, KP 80) Worst loss: @Utah Valley(RPI 275, KP 284)

Top performers

Weber State is basically a two-headed monster this year, with shooting guard Jeremy Senglin and power forward Joel Bolomboy leading the way. The two combine for 35.4 of the teams 76.2 points per game and both play more than 30 minutes per game. Senglin is a big-time scorer who can get buckets at all three levels. Bolomboy is a bully on the glass at both ends who does most of his offensive work in the paint, but he can step out and shoot it enough to keep defenses honest.

Here are the stats for the whole team:

Rk Player G MP FG% 3P% FT% TRB AST PTS
1 Jeremy Senglin 34 34.8 .493 .444 .618 3.5 2.8 18.2
2 Joel Bolomboy 32 31.4 .581 .365 .702 12.7 1.1 17.2
3 Kyndahl Hill 34 23.4 .617 .100 .753 5.9 0.9 8.2
4 Zach Braxton 33 20.4 .619 .528 4.1 0.5 6.9
5 Ryan Richardson 28 20.4 .385 .364 .846 1.8 1.3 6.9
6 Dusty Baker 33 18.5 .381 .393 .810 2.5 1.9 5.5
7 McKay Cannon 34 21.0 .392 .386 .711 1.9 2.7 5.4
8 Cody John 29 17.4 .374 .158 .605 1.6 1.6 4.6
9 Richaud Gittens 34 17.4 .360 .345 .654 2.1 1.3 4.3
10 Juwan Williams 20 8.4 .467 .455 .760 1.6 0.1 3.3
11 Jeremiah Jefferson 7 8.0 .571 .444 0.6 1.1 2.9
12 J.C. Kennedy 4 2.0 .667 .667 1.000 0.0 0.3 2.0
13 Kiko Stavrev 4 5.0 .250 .000 0.5 0.8 0.5
Provided by Sports-Reference.com/CBB: View Original Table
Generated 3/13/2016.

Final thoughts

I don't think this is a bad matchup for Xavier, though I guess you would hope so in a 2-15 game. Weber State has two stars and a host of role players of varying levels of mediocrity. A glance at their offense shows they like to play slow, don't get to the glass, and turn the ball over a lot. If Xavier can get a few early stops through turnovers or on the defensive boards, they should be able to turn this one into a laugher.