NCAA Tourney Evening Thread (Tennessee is Our Next Foe, FYI)
So our next opponent is playing on TNT as we speak. Mercer Bears vs. Tennessee Volunteers. Tennessee's big men...are big, and athletic, and good. Theire guards can shoot and hit shots which also propel them.
Iowa St. - UNC is at halftime on CBS
Stephen F. Austin - UCLA will be on at 7:10 on TBS
Creighton - Baylor at 7:40 on TruTv
Florida struggled with Albany and then demolished Pitt. Each game is different. If our terrible-ass defense (that is, Michigan's) can knock off MSU twice, surely one of the country's elite defenses can do it.
Duke has an incredible offense and UVA made them grind it out for 40 minutes so they'll likely be able to do the same to MSU.
UVA sure did itself no favors in the perception department by being down 10 to Coastal, that's for sure. Hard to deny that. I think the respect level's been getting up there though. Keyboard pundits are a little behind the desk jockeys, I'd say, but up the thread there's plenty of respect.
I'm still nervous as balls for this Memphis game, though.
I just got the Tenn/Mercer game on. Is Tenn winning due to great D or did Mercer shoot their wad vs. Duke?
Mercer tough time defending Tennesses bigs. Tennesse is also hitting shots from outside, something they've done lately but aren't known for. Mercer is not hitting shots. They were also skeptical it seemed to try and get to the basket, other than with their center, and didn't get any free throws the first half. I'm not sure they blew they'rew wad but Tennessee is a tough match for them, especially when they're draining threes.
Thx!
Roy W. was jumping up and down signaling for a 20 sec TO the whole time the ball was being dribbled to half court so, whether it was him or the player they recognized, he was calling for a TO.
Do they have a good D or is Mercer just a bad team? How did Duke lose? I would have rather played Mercer but I think we can out score TN!
Unfortunately for the UNC player, he had no way of knowing the clock operator fucked up, so when he was across the court and saw there was still > 1 second on the shot clock, he called the timeout [instead of putting up the prayer].
Okay, they're improved. If Iowa St. or Va doesn't beat them, then MICHIGAN will. We owe them sonsabitches. Why all the concern over MSU? Take care of our own games and it will work out.
just about any team can beat any other team. We only have to beat 4 of them.
The a capella version of "Seven Nation Army" doesn't seem to be intimidating Tennessee.
Richardson is un-fucking-conscious.
Mercer is fighting and finally doing like Reggie is saying, driving and getting better shots, but Tennessee keeps hitting shots.
Yes, those referees are quite the tricky folks.
on North Carolina is on the officials. The back official should be looking for the coach to call timeout in that situation.
tennessee is legit. they can be inconsistent but theyve been playing great ball lately - pretty sure florida is only team to beat them in over a month. i know they have bunch of seniors. and they certainly have some athletes. um has long athletic kids on the wing but tennessee beats them in that department. nice 1-2 with mccrae and stokes and richardson can be a tough cover. stokes is a beast down low and can run and jump with best of them - hell be a serious problem for um. tough squad. should be intersting game, especially if um continues to shoot lights out from 3 while playing zero D. duke wouldve been better matchup for um
We're not the best defensive team, but "zero D" is overstating things. Our first two tourney opponents had horrible effective FG% against us.
Red Wings 1-0. Word.
Iowa, UMass and Mercer. An 11, 6 and 14 seed.
what the OP stated? Doesn't. We've had an easy time, too.
watching UT outrebound Mercer by about 3:1. Guh.
Yea, we played pretty good D against Wofford and Texas. We have been bad defensively in some games but there are tons of teams with worse defense han we have.
Hopefully the fact Tenn played an extra game in the same time span helps UM.
but they're not currently playing us right now.
I got news for you guys, we are effing good and a scary team for others to play, for example:
-We handle the ball very well, many of the players at that
-We pass the ball at an elite level
-We shoot the ball at an elite level, as many as 6 guys who can shoot the 3
-We don't turn the ball over
-We shoot 75% from the FT as a TEAM
Trust me when I say that we scare teams, be confident, we are legit, have been and will be for a long time with Beilein as coach.
You are right. We are a great team. We won the B1G by 3 games. We beat Wisconsin in Wisconsin and OSU in Columbus. We handled the 2 Texas monsters just fine. We we can handle Tennessee. It may be closer than we like, but we should win. We didn't buy our #2 seed, we EARNED it!
We should note that Josh Richardson was averaging 9.6 ppg entering tonight. He has 26 points in this game. Probably not going to keep that up against us.
Yeah, I'm not scared about Tennessee. Last year everyone was freaking about VCU's havoc and Syracuse's 2-3 zone and we beat both.
All I have to say is this; John Beilein has one week of preparation.
Richardson and Barton are having career nights. The two bigs worry me but so did Holmes and Ridley from Texas, and we made quick work of them. Tennessee ranks in the top 20 on kenpom in offense and defense, but they have 12 loses? Which leads me to believe Martin has been out coached at times this year. Beilein with a week to prepare for Tennessee should end well for the good guys!
Obvious fact is obvious, but anyone getting to the Sweet Sixteen can bring it. Going to need another top effort, esp to not get crushed on the glass.
Whoa - I completely forgot that their coach is Cuonzo Martin. I wonder if Purdue will give him a call in the next couple of years.
I call this the Fontes Effect.
Team underperforms which puts the coach's job in jeopardy. This then leads to the team suddenly playing up to it's potential. Subsequently the team gets hot and saves the coach's job.
Baylor is bombing the hell out of Chreighton.
Some seriously good games this weekend.
Have to agree it's been one of the best opening weekends I can remember. Also, helps when big blue is rolling. Really was pulling for Witchita St, but oh well.... Gotta pull for Dayton next weekend.
I can't help it but please don't call us "big blue" ever again. Unless you ARE talking about Kentucky winning... then... go right ahead.
about 5 minutes ago.
Where's McDermott?
(edit: I see he's finally back in there, just hit a shot, and they mentioned his early foul trouble)
they're looking like quite the sweet 16 team right now
looks like he might be a keeper in Westwood
Memphis missing bunny shots trip after trip
Gotta believe Creighton will make a run. They're too good offensively not to.
Virginia runnin away a bit from Memphis. Creighton just can't hang. I'm not sure who can the way Baylor is playing. They've underachieved this year I'd venture to guess but they're also catching fire the last couple weeks.