Midwest Regional Semi-Finals Set
The Midwest regional semi-finals have been set. Held in Indianapolis on Friday and Sunday.
One game is one of the biggest rivalry games in all of college basketball, Louisville vs Kentucky. The two teams played earlier this season in Lexington, with Kentucky winning 73-66. Both teams seem to have been hitting their stride late in the regular season and through the first weekend of the tournament. Either of these teams would be a very tough out for Michigan, if we are fortunate enough to make it to the regional final. Conventional wisom might say that Louisville appears to be the slightly better team. However, Michigan does seem to match up better on paper with Louisville than Kentucky. Kentucky's big men could pose serious trouble for Michigan, especially Julius Randle. Louisville, as we well know, are led by Russ Smith and Luke f%$#ing Hancock, who swiped a national championship from Michigan's grasp last season.
The second game pits our own Wolverines against Tennessee. Tennessee is led by 6'6" senior guard Jordan McRae, who averages 18 points a game, and a couple very solid big men inside. They have not looked like your average 11 seed in disposing of Iowa, UMass, and Mercer in the tournament. In fact, they are currently ranked KenPom's #6 overall team, 4 spots ahead of Michigan. Michigan is definitely going to have to play well to defeat the Volunteers.
We all know that ESPN/CBS will be talking up the Louisville/Kentucky game all week long, with little to no mention of the Michigan/Tennessee game. Michigan will definitely be flying way under the radar, which I think suits us. Hopefully there will be a large contingent of Michigan fans in Indy, as Kentucky, Louisville, and Tennessee are all not far at all from Indy either.
My boss is retiring after 25 years, and Friday is her last day, and her last chance to help tie up the bajillion loose ends I'll be dealing with for the next month. FFFFFFML. Please win so I can go on Sunday!
Are you kidding coach? He's been waiting 25 years for this opening. Now is his time to make his move and claim that managerial position he's been so, so patiently waiting for.
March 23rd, 2014 at 10:16 PM ^
And we played a very athletic ISU team with talented big men with a 70% functional Mitch, Horford playing a lot of minutes and Morgan with limited time (4 minutes). We still only lost on the road by 7....early in the season when we were breaking in a freshman PG, Caris was starting a new role (5 points), Nik was just starting his breakout campaign, etc.
We stood toe to toe with a #1 seed Arizona at our place, early while still getting our bearings. We split with a lengthy Wisconsin team, etc etc.
As home fans we mostly focus on our warts and don't see all the ones on other teams.
I am usually the opposite of a sunshine blower but is not a matchup to be "feared" ... but to be respected and do our thing.
Disclosure: I thought ISU would win their bracket.
March 23rd, 2014 at 10:20 PM ^
I hadn't thought about that, but if you really look at it, Tennessee does appear to be a poor man's MSU. A good pair of big men (Payne/Dawson > Maymon/Stokes) and one great guard (Harris > McRae) with two other solid, long guards (Appling/Valentine = Barton/Richardson). Given the rebounding and defensive mindedness of the two teams, seems like we can use a lot of our experience from our games against MSU in preparing for Tenn.
March 23rd, 2014 at 10:26 PM ^
Just so everyone knows.
March 23rd, 2014 at 10:27 PM ^
per Dylan at UMHoops.
March 23rd, 2014 at 10:29 PM ^
March 23rd, 2014 at 10:40 PM ^
Easy win. Already looking forward to Louisville or Kentucky.
March 23rd, 2014 at 11:06 PM ^
Gonna assume you're a Tennessee fan trying to reverse jinx.
March 23rd, 2014 at 11:18 PM ^