Name 3 teams that scare you come March

[DukeWarhead]

Looking around the NCAA, there are a few teams that just give you that "I hope Duke isn't bracketed with them" feeling. Eventhough this Duke team can play with anyone, there are always those teams that give you a bad feeling. Three for me are:

1. Kansas - not a hard one. They can run and shoot as well as Duke. Maybe defense is the divider.

2. USC - not sure why, but don't want to see them in March.

3. Notre Dame - maybe silly. But they are scrappy. and Brey beating his former mentor would be a big headline. Almost happened in 2002 second round.

(Of course, would rather not see Carolina in March - rivalries don't go well in the tourney.)

Who's your three?

[CDu]

UCLA, Kansas, and UNC. Luckily, we aren't likely to have to face any of them until the Final Four (if at all).

[Troublemaker]

I:
Don't want to face in the Final Four -- UCLA
Don't want to face in the Elite 8 -- Kansas, Memphis, UNC (not likely to face any of these three here), Georgetown
Don't want to face in the Sweet 16 -- UConn, Gonzaga

Obviously, I continue to think UCLA is the best team.

[BlueintheFace]

I figure it is too obvious to name the three or four supposed championship contenders so I am going with less talented teams that could trip us up-

Kansas State
Indiana
Tennessee

[ugadevil]

Michigan State
Tennessee
Georgetown

[Wander]

Come on. You can't name UCLA, Memphis, or Kansas as your teams. That's weak.

I'll say Tennessee, Butler, and Maryland.

[dukie8]

I figure it is too obvious to name the three or four supposed championship contenders so I am going with less talented teams that could trip us up-

Kansas State
Indiana
Tennessee

indiana? they are horrible. they have ZERO, yes, that's right, ZERO top 50 wins. we should only so lucky to get them as a 4 or 5 seed.

ucla scares me the most because i think they are the best team. 2 straight years to the ff, a great pg, love in the paint and lot of other experienced guys like shipp make this one strong team. i'll love it if unc gets sent out west with them and it doesn't matter who is the 1.

[KandG]

is UConn not that scary, even with the way they've been coming on lately? They've got a shot blocker that I would think would be very disruptive to our slashers. I haven't followed them that closely this year, but the one thing I would think we have over them is that they don't seem to be an offensive powerhouse.

I guess the game against GT this afternoon will say more about how much of a threat they could be.

[The1Bluedevil]

Louisville
Texas A&M
Uconn

[shadowfax336]

Tennessee, Pitt, Kansas State, Xavier (ok that was 4...)

Tennessee has a very good team to begin with and they have the threat that Lofton could go off at any given time...
lots of teams have guys like that who can go off, but few of them can play at a competitive level if their star doesn't bring it and UT can

You all may remember Pitt...
Fields will be back by the tourney, and Blair hasn't gone anywhere...
the others have just gotten better with Fields out

Kansas State
I think that one is self explanatory, see my explanation for UT

Xavier
solid guards who could give us trouble, but also some decent interior play that could score on us...
just a very balanced team thats really good when the shots start falling

[Lotus000]

In the Sweet 16, depending on their seed, I don't want to see Drake. They have an aura of Cinderella about them this year.

[jlear]

one game at a time, one win at a time...no fear!

[OrangeDevil]

I assume that that the implicit issue is as possible Duke opponents. I fear no team, but the most challenging I see as: Georgetown, Kansas, and, epecially if they're healthy, UCLA.

[mus074]

Teams that protect the ball and force turnovers give Duke the hardest time. We have great individuals "go off" against us all the time. Hansbrough, Rice, whomever gets his 25+ doesn't necessarily beat us. Its whether our strength of perimeter ball pressure is matched or negated. We turned UNC over 20 times and BC 22 times. The stats show how correlated Duke's performance is to TOs. My individual number crunching shows an even stronger correlation to opponents' season average %ages than Pomeroy's calculations based on each in-game box score.

These strong teams have offensive and/or defensive turnover prowess (I also include Duke's numbers for comparison):

Duke - ranked 27th in offensive turnovers and 17th in defensive (against the 10th hardest defense SOS and 15th toughest offense)

Tennessee 14th, 6th (against 29th, 4th)
Kansas 34, 56 (agst 44, 18)
Memphis 23, 97 (agst 75, 48)
UCLA 47, 95 (agst 33,7)
Drake 43, 28 (agst 60, 108)
Xavier 46, 245 (agst 103, 51)
Butler 15, 72 (agst 90, 137)
UNC 28, 159 (agst 16, 56)
Georgetown 89, 314 (59, 34)

Only Tennessee shows up as a genuine counter. Kansas, Memphis and UCLA are good, but their best strengths lie elsewhere. Mid-majors present matchup difficulties since they tend to be more disciplined and perimeter-oriented. UNC is strong on one end but needs Lawson to get there.

Anyone we (would) see from Elite 8 on is going to be playing good ball and provide stiff competition. (Only the first two or three rounds provide matchups that a 1 or 2 seed is really expected to win.) Tennessee could get a two or three seed in our Region, which to my mind would make for our toughest realistic draw.

I know~ you asked for the time, and I built you a clock.

[MChambers]

By that I mean that this season has a lot of pretty good teams, but no dominant ones. I think differences between #1 and #16 are just not big. There are no Floridas or Ohio States out there.
I know, you asked for three, but I've been thinking about this for some time, and this thread seemed like a good time to make this point. We need to be realistic. We're having a great season, but Duke is not truly dominant.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

Are you kidding me? There isn't any team in the NCAA that scares me. The best teams, we'll only face them in the Final Four. And there is only one team in the entire field that the rest of the field doesn't want to face, and it is spelled

DUKE!

[NYC Duke Fan]

It Would Be STANFORD !!!! They are big and can match Duke in SAT Scores

[dukerev]

UConn
Kansas St.
Louisville

[Wander]

Only Tennessee shows up as a genuine counter. Kansas, Memphis and UCLA are good, but their best strengths lie elsewhere. Mid-majors present matchup difficulties since they tend to be more disciplined and perimeter-oriented. UNC is strong on one end but needs Lawson to get there.

Anyone we (would) see from Elite 8 on is going to be playing good ball and provide stiff competition. (Only the first two or three rounds provide matchups that a 1 or 2 seed is really expected to win.) Tennessee could get a two or three seed in our Region, which to my mind would make for our toughest realistic draw.

Good job. I thought that Tennessee was the easy and obvious answer to this question, and it makes sense that the numbers back it up.

[mpc]

Tenn., Uconn, and UCLA.

TN plays w/ such intensity and uses everybody on their bench including 2 waterboys. I hate all things TN, but I have to respect their play this season.

Uconn have been giant killers, for some reason they seem able to really rise to the competition and as of late they have had Duke's number.

UCLA seems to have good balance and their problems seem to have stemmed from injury rather than a hole in their game.