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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
We have a real chance at being the highest seeded team in Indianapolis AND also the least talked about, especially if Mercer wins.
Can't help but not root for Mercer. Go Bears!
Go Mercer!
Yea I'm rooting on Mercer, too. How the hell can't ya?
They came out a little bit rattled, seemingly, but only down 2 and just drawed an offensive foul on their Big Maymon.
I really, really like Coursey, Mercer's Big man. Such a fun watch. A true Center, not seen these days, with fundamentals.
I wonder if we'll finally get some respect if we beat Louisville/Kentucky. We were supposed to in the cellar of the big ten two years ago and we won the big ten title, we were picked against in nearly every game in last year's tournament, we were supposed to fold up shop when McGary went down, and yet people are still doubting us.
I think our team plays better in this role than when they are being heralded. We will earn our respect the hard way like we did last year.
I walk out of the room with Mercer down 7-0, I come back and it's tied. Note to self, get your shit together, it's NCAA time.
It's an interesting dynamic down low. I assume Mercer is running zone becasue they lack another big guy, unfortunately. Coursey is playing pretty cautious out there, especially on offense, as he's not really battling for offensive rebounds. If he gets in foul trouble, Tennessee could run away with this.
Because Tennessee isn't a great three-point shooting team. I expect we'll throw some 2-3 and 1-3-1 at them if Michigan ends up facing them
When you fall down with the ball????
There has been some bad officiating in the tourney.
Yes it is supposed to be, but it almost never gets called it seems.
I guess UM will be practicing a lot against the 2-3 zone.
Would be chomping at the bit to play primarily against a zone. Go Mercer!
Here's the thing, the 2-3 works well against Tennessee because they can't shoot 3s. Michigan obviously can, so if Mercer wants to zone up against us, I have a feeling we will be ready. If were on from 3 we will bomb them back to the Stone Age.
I've no idea how that was an And-1.
We'd beat Tenn by double digits? Don't know what game you're looking at.
Mercer will not win this game. I hope they do, but won't.
Nightmares
Mercer's band is terrifying.
Yeah, we're playing the Vols.
Are working the whiteboard as we speak.
Just as a note regarding Mercer, it's going to be rather difficult to win if you let Tennessee hang around with a free throw rate in the 50% range, even if shooting and other stats are more or less equal. Seven fouls is a lot of fouls for being slightly over halfway through the first half, although there are a few teams in this tourney - whether by their own doing or the refs - who have exceeded this pace.
the big guy.
Mercer needs to settle down. They're fine.
How did Duke lose to these guys? They don't look very good
I actually think Tennessee playing like this would have beaten duke. Tennessee looks good but not unbeatable or anything.
But they seem to be playing out of their minds. If Mercer keeps it in single digits at half Tenn will come back to earth.
I think you're right. There's lots of game to go in this one. The shots especially, however, if they don't fix the defense on Stokes and Maymon, there may not be a "back to earth", they'll just keep doing what they're doing.
Michigan beats either of these teams comfortably
Tennessee looks scary but I believe in "give Beilein a week and he'll beat you" theory
They have looked scary against UMass and Mercer though. I'm not worried about either one.
Anything can happen and all that.
Does anybody else NOT go to Buffalo Wild Wings becasue of the atrocious marketing/advertising?
No, I don't go because their food is mediocre and over priced.
Edit: But, yeah their commercials kind of funny the first time, but annoying as hell after the 2nd or 3rd time.
I actually don't mind their wings (I've had other stuff there, it was downright bad), but I've probably also never had really good wings. I hate the commercials the first time around and exponentially afterward. They're just bad.
I hate the mighty ospreys ad with a burning passion.
Now if they had osprey wings for a buck, I might try that.
Tennessee lost to Texas A&M, Vanderbilt, and UTEP. They're not bad but a team we should beat.
You had to go a month back to list a bad loss and that was on the road in OT.
You know how UM usually has a height advantage with LeVert and Stauskas? 6-6 Richardson and McRae are just as long and great defenders. Ask Roy Marble about McRae.
Know how we struggle in transition defense? Tenn looks pretty good there
Know how Texas slowed the game down and beat us up on the offensive glass? Tenn is even better plus Maymon/Stokes are better post scorers than Ridley/Holmes.
We will have to shoot the 3 well, get out in transition and use zone extensively, pack it in and dare them to hit 3s.
All that is true, but none of their wins in that span were against anyone good. They needed OT to get by an Iowa team that had lost 6 of their last 7 games. I think this is about as easy as you can ask for in a Sweet 16 matchup -- not a cakewalk, but not last year's Kansas team either.
Buffalo Wild Wings is shit.
Hot to finish the year and handling Mercer well. I'll be fairly terrified if we end up playing them
UT is a better team than their seed indicates. However, they're pretty much catching every break and doing everything right at this point in the game. Mercer might not be able to over come this, but I doubt they can hold that level for a long time. Remember Iowa was beating them until Iowa did the Iowa thing of collapse down the stretch.
23-4 rebounds, Tennessee advantage, 10 offensive
Tennessee is going full on beast mode on the glass. 23-4 rebound advantage right now I think
Man, Mercer is a hot mess; can't catch a break. They also need to stop feeding thier low post players who can't finish at the rim.
Reminds me so much of us. A lot of three's, no inside game and, bad defense. Tennessee is getting all the loose balls and we don't always give 100% effort.
Shit getting pushed in part. Right?
Whaaa?
Have watched a lot of Tennessee all year. Not sure why you guys are suprised about their performance. They are actually playing about how they usually play--strong athletes across the board, huge on the boards, play great defense. There are #6 on KenPom right now and blew out #4 Viriginia by 30 points. 30!!
I would ber we are actually an underdog going into the game.
Also Mercer doesn't have their big guy down low. I assume that a team like Mercer probably doesn't have the top end depth of a team like Tennessee to deal with that.
They do have their big man. Coursey is it. The near-7-footer they have, Monty Brown, averaged only 9 min. a game, 4 points, and 2 rebounds. He wasn't anywhere near a high usage player. He would be helpful today, for sure, matching up with Tennessee's bigs. Sorry if you knew all/some of that and were just mentioning how they're down a bench player (a Big one at that).
Mercer doesn't grab rebounds, they just tap the ball around. Mercer still puttin some points up. Regress to the mean and this should come down to the last 5-6 min
I'd still rather play Tennessee over Duke.
this I think at some point people need to accept that we will
Be playing good teams and that we are a damn good team too. Bring em on.
Not about quality of a team but mismatches. A ton of teams are better than Indiana but I'm sure a majority of UM fans would prefer to play some of those better teams before IU. ee
Me too...but mainly bc I trust a more fairly officiated game if we are playing TN
State has such a cakewalk. Iowa State looks much worse without Niang.
State lost at home against UNC didn't they?
They will be in revenge mode if they rematch with unc. I expect them to win comfortably.
Umm Roy Williams owns Izzo. No way MSU wins that game
Yep, by 14. How many injuries did state have then? And how much of a tire fire was UNC? Not sarcastic here, just can't remember
Refs are killing ISU right now.
I turned off the TN/Mercer game in favor of this awesome UNC/IA State game.
UNC is mugging and Iowa St. getting called for shit the past few minutes.
Refs trying to make the game as close as possible to the regular season, that's all.
North Carolina making me look smart for having them on the F4
Up your butt, Jobu.
Same foe having ISU. Go Clones
They are a 3 seed.
to the movie! Well played!
Not so smart, really
Naz Long keeping Iowa St. in it right now. Two big 3s to keep UNC from pulling away...
Iowa St. finally getting a call
To tell Morgan that the Tenn bigs (or Mercer's) are the next coming of Shaq and Chaimberlin, that ought to do it.
2 dudes singing hail to the victors at halftime.
about how the SEC sucks in basketball, but it looks like it's going to have as many teams in the 16 as the Big Ten will have.
but Tennessee can thank Mercer for beating Duke and Florida's looked mediocre. I think the main dig on the SEC is that it's so so top heavy. A few good schools and then a ton of abysmal ones in slots 4-14
It when Roy Williams gets that befuddled look on his face.
He looks like he should be the antagonist lawyer in a movie set in the south.
Character
Canadians man.
Very frustrating watching the ISU game that they UAT don't have the score and time up on the screen at all times.
Never mind - wife messed with the TV
Am just curious, but Beilein chose to offer Walton over Monte Morris, right? Or did Morris pass on us?
Walton accepted the offer first.
Did Morris have a commitable offer?
Weird to think that we could have been playing Iowa in the Sweet 16. They lost to Tennessee in OT.
What a late fucking whistle.
Whistle there
It's a bummer that Iowa state doesn't have it's second best player in niang. I think they could have challenged msu with him- not so sure without him.
Virginia doesn't exist?
Huge free throws by UNC there.
That time should have been started quicker.
1.6 seconds on the clock so you dribble it to halfcourt and try to call a timeout? No way any time is left
I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure in college you don't get the ball out of bounds past halfcourt unless you call the TO past halfcourt.
But yeah, they had a better chance with a prayer-launched 3. I think they got a break, actually - the clock should've started sooner.
You're right - but they didn't have to inbound it in the backcourt. Throw it to halfcourt and then call timeout.
but UNC has to realize it's either a) timeout immediately or b) go for the game-winning 3 without it. You don't have enough time to cross halfcourt with 1.6 on the clock at the in-bounds
He actually had a pretty good look from 1/2 court, if he would have taken it.
What would have been interesting is if he would have taken it, releasing it with .2 secs left and made it, then would the refs have been able to review to clock starting late and waved off the shot?
Cyclones!!!
For a shot
The clock took half a second to start the game should be over!
Should be game over, clock started wayyyyy too late. 1.6 definitely went off the clock before that timeout.
Did they really think they could dribble it across the timeline and call a timeout in 1.6 seconds?
Two games in a row (WSU-KY being the other) where people seriously overestimated how fast they could dribble across the timeline.
Clock shouldn't have even run down to 1.6 left. There's time left.
Doesn't seem right being critical of an NC timeout issue in the tournament...
Seems like the clock was late starting when NC took the ball in.
Iowa State would've beaten MSU with Niang.
and will
Game should be over. Clock ran out even after starting late.
The game should be over but there is no way they will end it.
Do the math, game over.
Great bucket by ISU
The game is over
Great work by refs
Bravo refs for getting that one correct.
And with UNC losing MSU gets a cake walk to the Final Four
Unfortunately this. And we are going to hear that damn every izzo senior has made the final four. Insufferable. Oh well, go blue!! Here is to michigan starting a similar streak.
Not so fast. I like Virginia to beat them.
UNC already killed MSU at the Breslin this season. Might want to pump the brakes on the DOOM. Pluse Virginia is no gimmie.
Shoot worded that wrong. Iowa st could still beat MSU.
So is ISU and Virginia out of the tourney now? They both have a better shot at taking out state then UNC did.
I'm surprised the officials had the balls to make that call.
Probably been quite some time since none of UNC, Duke, Kansas, or Syracuse made the Sweet 16
2011 to be exact.
ah yes....eons ago. I knew it.
Roy Williams is an idiot, you weren't going to get a better look than a half court 3 but that's far better than not getting a shot at all.
Player should have known to at least shoot the ball also. Bad late game strategy by UNC all around.
Able to recruit on the reputation of UNC, and not much else. Same for Self at Kansas.
Two National Titles since '05. Not bad for an overrated coach...
Another hated program going down early. My GOD, how Iove it. Had MSU, Wisconsin, Louisville and Kentucky lost this weekend, this would have been THE perfect weekend in the history of sports.
Only thing that sucks for UNC is if the clock had actually started on time I'm guessing he would've taken a shot seeing the clock was almost expired.
Roy Williams didn't want the timeout.
Deandre Kane is a nightmare for opposing teams.
Timeout karma for UNC. Ironic isn't it?
Not really.
Too soon man, too soon - give me another 10-15 years and check back.
More clock issues. The clock easily should have run off earlier than it did. North Carolina got a HUGE break there before they called timeout and the commentators never even noticed.
Just like with the Nebraska/Baylor game, there are some serious morons running the clocks. This shouldn't be an issue.
They still have to play Virginia who is no Delaware/Harvard.
Msu is no coastal Carolina either, who Virginia struggled with. I don't think that UVA can keep up with Msu's offensive firepower unfortunately.
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.
Obviously you have a rooting interest but I'm still very surprised at how little respect UVA is getting, not just on this board but from the national media as well.
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!
UNC is officially the dumbest collection players in (or at least was in) the tourney. Absolute zero awareness of where the clock was. Also, Roy is a moron as well. Once the ball was inbounded, he should've known better than to still ask for a timeout.
He didnt call the timeout. A freshman PG did bc he still saw time on the clock. Im sure if the clock started when it was suppose to there wouldnt have been a timeout called.
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.
Both the games on right now suck
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.
When the officials have let a ton of contact go, then call some BS tricky-tack crap 35 feet away from the bucket.
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.
Ummm that is more difficult than ours
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.
Things I'm seeing from the game:
1) Tennessee getting at least 12 more points off of free throws than Mercer. Maybe they're great at drawing contact, but Michigan is not one to foul too much.
2) Major offensive rebound disparity 20-5.
Not sure how this matches up for next week but food for thought.
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.
Tennessee it is. Bring em on! Go Blue!!
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
Apparently that performance by Richardson was a career high. Not a season high. A career high. He was playing out of his mind.
His previous high this season was 20 points during that Virginia blowout on 12/30. He's also streaky. He's played well in the tournament (17 Iowa; 15 UMass; 27 tonight). But looking at his season stats, he's only put double digit points up 4 games in a row once (back in February--Florida 13; Mizzou 16; Georgia 10; Texas A&M 11).
If Richardson regresses to the mean he should post up high single digit points against us. Maybe he hits the mid teens. But getting north of 20 points would be very out of character for him.
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.
Sadly, the Sweet Sixteen will be missing the Stephen F. Austin Fight Song.
Memphis is the most overseeded team in the tournament. They fucking suck
Well, they're only seeded #8, and playing a #1 seed.
Thought my it said 6. Still though.....25 point deficit?
Has anyone heard anything from Vitale lately? Been awfully quiet since Duke shit the bed
The announcers of the UVa-Memphis game think Tennessee is going to play MSU . . . oops.
I noticed that. Idiots.
I'd expect nothing less from the genius mind of Reggie Miller.
They don't think "the Wolverines have an answer for Tenn's bigs down low"
JMo alert!
Hahahaha announcers on the Virginia-Memphis game talking about Tennessee vs. Michigan State for a full minute... they caught their mistake eventually
We all get to go to bed early. Blowout games. Been a great four days
That may have been the worst stretch of announcing ever . Idiots thought MSU was playing Tennessee. Then went on a spiel about Michigan not being able to handle the interior strength... When just yesterday we handled Ridley. Can't believe these morons are getting paid to do this
Maymon and Stokes are in another tier than Ridley and Holmes.
Gonzaga fans should start an "Underrated" chant to show proper respect to Arizona right now.
