The Panthers of Prairie View are back in March, snapping a 7-year hiatus from the NCAA Tournament. It wasn't so long ago head coach Byron Smith was feared as a perennial SWAC contender. Lately, however, this once proud program mysteriously got lost in the wilderness. Akin to his program resurrection back in 2019, Smith course corrected the Panthers again this year and maneuvered Prairie View to an improbable four-game run in the SWAC Championship. He leaned heavily on his ironman backcourt, Dontae Horn and Lance Williams, who clocked 155 of a possible 160 total minutes.
Restoring a Lost Luster
Bryon Smith was the toast of the SWAC before the COVID dark ages. He inherited one of the worst programs in the league in 2017. Five years later his Panthers were 66-19 in the SWAC, culminating in a flawless 13-0 campaign in 2020-21. A blowout loss in the 2021 SWAC Championship game to nearby rival Texas Southern would be the closest Smith would sniff the dance.
From 2022 through 2025, this program was stuck in reverse. A combination of an eroding talent supply, failed JUCO recruits, and numerous injuries turned the Panthers back into a pumpkin. The difference this year is roster construction. Smith found diamonds in the rough from the power conference rank, and rounded up one of the most experienced rosters in the SWAC, which boasts eight graduate students and features ZERO underclassmen in the primary rotation.
The Bigger The Better
Last season's 5-27 disaster was rooted in a simple roster flaw - a sheer lack of interior size and force. In conference play last year, the Panthers finished dead last in 2-point field goal percentage defense. This year, PVAMU jumped to 2nd in that category, and led the entire SWAC in blocks per possession. Utah Valley transfer Cory Wells and NAIA import Corey Dunning embody the Panthers' revamped defensive DNA. This team is long, athletic and versatile, which arms Smith with a number of lockdown on-ball defenders. This is NOT a team you want to isolate and hunt mismatches with.
Per Synergy, Prairie View A&M's defensive efficiency in isolation settings was 7th best in the nation. Comparatively, the Panthers were also top-75 in both pick-n-roll defense and post-up defense, additional evidence that they can hold their own in 1-v-1 and two-man game situations.
The table below is a statistical breakdown of Prairie View's matchup with Lehigh (data from Synergy), which contextualizes how they stack up nationally in a few key domains:
Secret Weapon Supersub
The return of Tai'Reon 'Scootah' Joseph could be the ace up Byron Smith's sleeve in the play-in round. When fully healthy and in form, Joseph is one of the SWAC's most prolific scorers. The slippery southpaw loves to go left, where he's most comfortable shooting in the midrange and from long distance, but his bread and butter is attacking the rim. While not a model of efficiency, Joseph's newfound microwave role off the pine might serve as a 'catalyst in case of emergency' against a less athletic Lehigh defensive front.
Joseph's 10 points off the bench in the SWAC title game in just nine minutes of action provided a timely boost to help the Panthers prevail over Southern, Joseph's former team.
Similar NCAA Tournament efficiency profiles
Tournament Index evaluation
Prairie View A&M earned a No. 16 seed at the NCAA Tournament. In terms of seed strength, the Tournament Index grades the Quakers as the second-weakest No. 16 seed compared to the last 12 tournament fields. For Prairie View A&M, the TI projects an average of 0.04 wins (if it gets out of Dayton) given its seed and team strength.
