Tennessee or Mercer
Which one do you want to play? Which one do we match up best against?
They hammered Virginia, who is probably the most overrated team in the country.
Regardless, I'm a Mercer fan tomorrow.
Total consciousness.
Brad Binder, owner of Gray's Sports Almanac, said so. And he also said we'd win. So we've got that going for us. Which is nice.
Ask me tomorrow at halftime of their game.
But I'm leaning Tennessee. Mercer looked GOOD yesterday. I never got the vibe that they were putting on an unrepeatable performance.
As long as it isn't Dook I don't care but probably Mercer
Mercer Mercer Mercer Mercer Mercer Mercer
81st in Kenpom or 7th. 77th in sagarin or 20th. This isnt even close. I think we know Tennesse isnt quite the 7th best team in the country, but theyre atleast top 25. The gap is pretty large between the two teams.
Three-way comparison for the board...
| Offense | Michigan | Mercer | Tennessee |
|
Points/Game
|
73.9 | 77.2 | 71.2 |
| Avg Score Margin | 9.3 | +9.7 | +9.5 |
| Assists/Game | 14.2 | 15.7 | 12.2 |
| Total Rebounds/Gm | 31.8 | 36.1 | 38.6 |
| Effective FG % | 55.40% | 54.1% | 49.4% |
| Off Rebound % | 26.50% | 29.8% | 38.6% |
| FTA/FGA | 0.354 | 0.379 | 0.421 |
| Turnover % | 13.10% | 15.3% | 14.0% |
|
Defense
|
Michigan | Mercer | Tennessee |
|
Opp Points/Game
|
64.6 | 67.6 | 61.6 |
| Opp Effective FG % | 49.20% | 46.5% | 45.8% |
| Off Rebounds/Gm | 7.4 | 8.9 | 12.0 |
| Def Rebounds/Gm | 21.9 | 23.1 | 23.9 |
| Blocks/Game | 2.5 | 3.9 | 4.6 |
| Steals/Game | 5.2 | 6.0 | 5.2 |
| Personal Fouls/Gm | 14.3 | 18.9 | 17.0 |
Either one is fine by me. I actually think Mercer is the better matchup because these cinderella teams tend to struggle once a team has a week to prepare, while UT seems a bit more athletic and has played enough tough games recently to be on a bit of a roll.
Tennessee has significantly better offensive rebounding and defense. Teams that are good at offensive rebounding are Michigan's biggest problem, outside of Texas which looked like 5 tall football players trying to play basketball the way they were shooting. I doubt Tennessee will shoot that badly.
March 22nd, 2014 at 10:27 PM ^
The team that didn't beat a 1-seed by 35 please
March 22nd, 2014 at 10:17 PM ^
March 22nd, 2014 at 10:55 PM ^
March 22nd, 2014 at 11:16 PM ^
March 23rd, 2014 at 12:12 AM ^
I'm ready for a repeat of the 2011 game.
I was at the bowl game in FLorida when they murdered us. Payback in any sport is good. Plus they still think Manning should have won the Heisman....