Can we not do this?
Mercer is down by 15 at halftime.
Maybe not so underrated.
Can we not do this?
Mercer? Who?
The ACC is doing poorly and Duke may have done the worst of those schools.
I really ask - only a little in frustration... I didn't watch (I was watching UNC go down !!!!!!!! ) - how was this so easy for UT? What did they have that we didn't? please reply - I really am asking here.
Help D? ability to stop dribble penetration?
I don't deny this some, but I am SSUUURRRE Mercer was "up" and motivated to the hilt to win and get to the durnn sweet 16! If it was regular season and Duke followed by UT, I would allow this a little. But in a tourney Mercer barely ever gets to play in EVER? No. They wanted to win today in the worst way and be like Dayton. Actually that's a good analogy - Mercer and Dayton. I am sure Dayton LOVED (!!!) beating their neighbor they hear about all the time - OSU... (similar to Mercer beating us) ... But Dayton still came out and won the next game too and are in the sweet 16. Mercer was very motivated today I have no doubt. I am not going to lay this on - " they play difft vs Duke than UT", not when its in the NCAA tourney and a chance to tell their grandkids they made the sweet 16 is on the line.
So - back to original question. What did UT have that we did not?
The headline to this story provides a good guess
Tennessee uses its size and strength to manhandle Mercer
http://college-basketball.si.com/201...s-to-sweet-16/
Nah - Jay Wiliiams, Elton Brand, Battier, Boozer, Laettner teams had Duke on the Jersey - and they REFUSED TO LOSE. Didn't matter the "motivation" of Mercer. I recall watching us play Winthrop in the round of 64 in 01(?) - about that time. Man, it was a joke. It was like 75-35. We just firggin crushed people. Their motivation to hope they could beat Duke didn't matter one iota. We overwhelmed them and broke their will.
Why cant we do that now with freshman of the year Parker... ACC 2nd team Rodney hood. NBA Suliamon etc???
Youngest son is a freshman at UTK, and is a pretty good student of the game. He painted up for the UT-Florida game in Knoxville (my tuition money at work!), and he's been telling me all year that the talent is there; they've just been wildly inconsistent. He loves Stokes and McRae, and with the way Richardson and Barton stepped up today, they will be a tough out.
For the love of god, can we stop this lame excuse? One day during the offseason when I'm bored I'm going to post a thread that crunches numbers and disproves this, but for now suffice it to say that the NCAA tournament is sufficient in and of itself to get teams to play with effort and excitement.
I think the idea of playing in the first round of your first NCAA tournament a team full of 4 year guys was the main reason Mercer got up to play, in addition to being able to play Duke.
I also think the name "MERCER" on their jerseys helped Duke not get as up to play them.
What did Tenn do that Duke didn't? They played slightly better defense (held Mercer to 45% shooting, which isn't that impressive) and played way better offense (49% shooting versus Duke's 35%). They also got to the line more and sent Mercer to the line less. And took better care of the ball (7 turnovers to Duke's 12).
We can point to Duke's defense for being why they lost to Mercer, but I'm more inclined to blame both the offense and defense for that one.
Mercer beat Duke...but in the regular season Duke beat UVA, Michigan and UCLA - three of the 16 teams that are still playing. We also played decently well against a fourth team - Arizona.
Not sure how you can totally explain that except to say weird things can happen in a one and done format.
UT has three quality big men. That's the difference.