Discuss our Round of 64 matchup with Mercer here.
We should know if we play Thursday Saturday or Friday Sunday. Which is it?
Great, thanks.
I watched Mercer's semifinal against S.C. Upstate and then final tourney game at Florida Gulf Coast. This is a real team that has a bunch of seniors, good guards, and has had a great year. This is a tough game, friends.
This is my worst nightmare come true... I'll give a rundown on The Bears later when I get home.
They are ranked 99th by KenPom and have one avg double figures. I have watched some of their competition and it isn't that great. However they are experienced. We should be able to take them by 10+
The last time we opened the NCAAT versus a team I had never heard of was in 2012 in Greensboro against Lehigh. We play another team I have never heard of in Raleigh this year and I have learned my lesson not to sleep on them. This game is not an automatic win for Duke. I will be one nervous fan all week!
Their best player is senior Langston Hall, a 6'4" guard averaging 14.7 ppg and 5.6 apg. I would think that Sulaimon will draw Hall on defense, but that Hood may spend time on him as well.
I would imagine that he is not an NBA talent like CJ McCollum was, but not having seen him play, I really have no clue. McCollum, to me, was a nightmare because we didn't have a lockdown defender to keep up with him. Having defended Harris and Warren pretty well over the past few days, I hope we are prepared to stop Hall.
They shoot lots of 3s, 21/game, 37% of their total FGAs; compared (and comparable) to Duke's 22/game and 39% of total FGAs.
On pins and needles and can't believe we have to wait until Friday night.
Looking at Mercer's starter's size alone, they run out at:
6'2" 170lbs
6'4" 180 lbs
6'6" 200 lbs
6'6" 200 lbs
6'10" 220
I have to think that Jabari being defended by a guy that is 6'6" is a clear advantage for Duke. Amile's counterpart appears to be equally thin at 6'10" 220, so at least Amile doesn't have to go up against any serious beef, although he has actually shown well against bigger guys with his quickness and mobility.
Hi all. My first post after years of shadowing and reading. Please be gentle
Just to note...one of their assistant coaches is a former UNC JV player and coach. His name is Doug Esleeck.
Go Duke
You haven't heard of mercer? It's a good school academically nearby in Atlanta (well Macon technically - little south of Atlanta)... They beat FGCU last year and should have been the team in the tourney instead of FGCU but blew it on the tourney weekend. This year they did what they should have last year
Solid solid team. Mercer is Better at guard than inside. The one reason this doesn't worry me as much as Lehigh is we now have have Suliamon and Matt jones and Thornton to defend - vs Lehigh we only had Thornton then. And more importantly we have Parker and hood to score more than the Ryan Kelly type team. Mercer doesn't have a Parker stopper. When we played Lehigh we were reliant on Austin Rivers and more on the three ball. No offense but I would rather rely on a freshman star with strength like Parker than a 2 guard like Rivers. Just more consistent. Parker and hood should always be worth almost 30 pts together
Last edited by gofurman; 03-16-2014 at 07:59 PM.
We did not have Ryan against Lehigh, which is a big reason why we lost. We had MP1 and MP2 and a bunch of small guards in Rivers, Curry, Thornton. Dawkins or Thornton had to play the 3 and we had no one but Tyler to guard Mccollum.
We are much better equipped for Mercer than we were for Lehigh. Anyone know when we will find out what time the game is? We will know tonight or will it not be announced until tomorrow?
Haven't seen it on here yet but I'm gonna say it. Duke works Mercer like they did Davidson to start the year. I know many posters are skittish to make predictions that Duke will dominate after Lehigh but this team is capable of putting big offensive numbers for both games this weekend.
Coach K on Kyle Singler - "What position does he play? ... He plays winner."
"Duke is never the underdog" - Quinn Cook