Midwest Regional Semi-Finals Set

Submitted by bballislife22 on

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. 

Mr. Yost

March 23rd, 2014 at 9:11 PM ^

But they only have two options...white or bright orange with white (not syracuse orange).

We do NOT get to chose, we get to make a request as the home team.

If the conference, or in this case, the NCAA head of officials doesn't think it is contrasting enough, we wear either white or blue (we can still request blue, we don't have to wear white).

Unless Tennessee has a black jersey available, we very easily may be in white or blue (our choice)

I'm not saying it's 100%, I'm not the NCAA head of officials. But it's VERY possible. 

Mr. Yost

March 23rd, 2014 at 9:09 PM ^

But they only have two options...white or bright orange with white (not syracuse orange).

We do NOT get to chose, we get to make a request as the home team.

If the conference, or in this case, the NCAA head of officials doesn't think it is contrasting enough, we wear either white or blue (we can still request blue, we don't have to wear white).

Unless Tennessee has a black jersey available, we very easily may be in white or blue (our choice)

BigCat14

March 24th, 2014 at 12:09 PM ^

I went to shcool an hour (ish) away from knoxville.  I wore my Michigan gear proudly and was received very coldly.  It was fun for me at times, and others their fans were almost worse than msu fans.  It was fun debating the National Championship differences and who should have received the Heisman.  I believe both players vetted themselves very well throughout their carreers as some of the best of their positions.  The fans down there however, have not!  

 

Go Blue!

MGoGrendel

March 23rd, 2014 at 8:39 PM ^

saying that Michigan will be a very tough game for their school. B1G champs, awesome three point shooting, an under appreciated center combo that is tough, NBA caliber players, awesome coach that adjusts well, etc., etc.

I like our chances, but know we will have to play well to advance. Go Blue.

gwkrlghl

March 23rd, 2014 at 8:41 PM ^

[dreaming harp music].....

 

JMo was starting in this game! This seems like an eternity ago. Bring with us your great wisdom oh wise sage Morgan

BeileinBuddy

March 23rd, 2014 at 8:40 PM ^

Man I'm getting tired of playing teams that begin with T and have orange as their primary color.

If you include last year, Michigan is the Orange Killers. We'll take down Florida, Syracuse, Texas, and Tennessee.

LSAClassOf2000

March 23rd, 2014 at 8:41 PM ^

....for the board's perusal / discussion:

  TENNESSEE MICHIGAN
Points/Game 71.2 75
Avg Score Margin 9.5 9.8
Assists/Game 12.2 14.4
Total Rebounds/Gm 38.6 31.9
Effective FG % 49.40% 56.00%
Off Rebound % 38.60% 26.40%
FTA/FGA 0.421 0.36
Turnover % 14.00% 13.00%
Opp Points/Game 61.6 65.2
Opp Effective FG % 45.80% 49.60%
Off Rebounds/Gm 12 7.4
Def Rebounds/Gm 23.9 22.1
Blocks/Game 4.6 2.5
Steals/Game 5.2 5.2
Personal Fouls/Gm 17 14.5

 

bigmc6000

March 23rd, 2014 at 8:47 PM ^

for certain that we're the second game?  I'm really hoping for the first game but I guess it depends on how the exec's look at it.

 

If you put UM-UT (again) in the early spot the people who don't care might watch it because there isn't much else but with the big rivalry game second you'll get a lot of people who would turn off UM-UT altogether once you get into the 9 - 10 pm time frame where there are better things to do than watch a game you don't care about.  Fingers crossed anyway...

alum96

March 23rd, 2014 at 9:12 PM ^

I like the matchup - Tenn has played 3 nobodies with no offense to UMass.  Iowa has been in a tailspin the last month, UMass was meh, and Mercer was athletically overmatched.  They had their moment of glory and that was it. 

I expect a good game, and while the normal angst will be all over the board, its the sweet 16.  We are a 2 seed - the other 2s were upset by Stanford, and UConn, and were in a very tough matchup with Oregon.  We looked the least likely to be upset of any of those seeds (1s and 2s) in the first weekend (other than UF). 

One of the other 1s already is gone playing a team the angst would be through the roof over if UM played them in the 2nd round (Kentucky), another 1 if it wins tonight has a very tough battle vs MSU, and another 1 is UF who has a good path and deserves it with their overall #1 seed.  If AZ beats Gonzanga they face Steve Fischer's San Diego State, a #4. Frankly aside from UF we have been set up with the nicest path thus far.  If we lose to Tenn, we deserve to lose - right now our defense has stepped up nicely vs the BTT, and our big man if not forced to go the bench in the first 60 seconds has matured and become something to account for with other teams and we have 3 wings any of which can go off on you on any night.  And Caris is due for a big night - he has been off the last 3 games.  

Tenn has 1 major win all year (UVA) back in December.  UF beat them solidly all 3 times  If we want to win a NCAA championship this should be a game our skill pulls away in the final 4-5 minutes as we run those dudes into the ground.   I hope Bacari spends all week telling Morgan how overmatched he is versus the "twin towers".

M-Dog

March 23rd, 2014 at 9:01 PM ^

We need Michigan fans to show up.  It will be an anti-Michigan crowd as the Louisville/KY fans pull for Tennesee in the hopes of an "easier" matchup for themselves later.  Nobody wants to play Michigan.

 

bluebyyou

March 23rd, 2014 at 9:13 PM ^

We have two big things going for us.  The first is John Beilein and his offensive scheme, given a week to make a game plan.

The second thing is a nice long rest for our team.  Through yesterday we played five games in nine days.  Having a few days to catch our breath has got to help.

I also think that we have played a tougher schedule than the Vols and have players with a couple of years of NCAA experience.

 

alum96

March 23rd, 2014 at 11:06 PM ^

Just curious

 

What did the all mighty KenPom say about Kansas, Syracuse, and Florida last year?

Should we just go to a Vegas odds/Kenpom tournament and skip the real games?  Their #5, #9, #12, #14, and #15 are already gone in the first weekend.  So 33% of their top 15 eradicated ...only one beaten by another team in the top 15.

JamieH

March 24th, 2014 at 1:16 PM ^

Last year we also inserted McGary into the starting lineup late in the season when Morgan got injured and he really changed the complexion of our team.  We were a much better team than our KenPom rating said we were because of how McGary was playing at the end of the year.  He played like an All-American down the stretch.