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Official tournament day 4 thread

In Houston’s 4 losses this season, they scored an average of 56.5 points/game if that tells you anything.

2 of those losses came to the 2nd best defense in the country, Iowa State.

Did anyone here watch the games between Houston and Iowa State this season that Iowa State won? How were they able to defeat the cougars?
 
Playing Houston in Texas is rough but thats life as a 4 seed. We've got a shot if we shoot the 3 well.
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What is Texas doing? Geez. 4 of 5 starters out. You have to extend the game. What are you doing taking as 3!!??
 
Well night all. Great day for the boys in blue. This was a big win for Jon, who did a great job game planning and the team came out ready after enduring some heat from the national media this week. Seems we were ripe for an upset and instead we curb stomped them. On to Houston!
 
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Hope the coaching staff has the guys run a multitude of different offensive sets to keep Houston on their toes and make them work.

Texas A & M were able to drive at will tonight and get Houston into foul trouble. A & M shot a lot more free throws than Houston tonight but A & M left 18 points at the charity stripe.
 
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As we know, Houston is a good team and they are rightfully a 1 seed. However, I still think we have a really good shot. Their biggest guy is 6'8 and both guards are 6'1.

Still going to soak in this past weekend for a day or two!!
 
Such a great feeling to wake up on Monday morning after the first weekend and know we are still dancing! Yeah, Houston is a good team, legit 1 seed, but we have the talent, and it does seem like we match up well against them. Anything could happen, but don't think for a minute we didn't put 15 other teams on notice with yesterday's performance.
 
I watched the 30 point beat down Iowa state gave Houston but Houston was with out two players that game . Pretty much have to repeat the JMU game . Come out swinging and get their defense off. Hitting three’s once again will be crucial to help Mark and Flip inside .
 
I watched the game with the sense that Texas A&M would be the tougher matchup for Duke. Some tall lanky guys, they drive it. Houston smaller but strong guards. And either way Duke was gonna play a team from Texas in Texas.

Also you have an X factor(or whatever term you want to use) of Houston being the favored top seed which I really think helps Duke in this matchup. I think Duke plays well Friday with a chance to win down the stretch.
 
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I hope Coach Scheyer uses the bench and can put them at the FT line late in the game if need be. We have a lot of fouls on the bench, I would use them.
 
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Houston offensive rankings (out of 362 teams):

2-pt FG: #216
3-pt FG: #126
FT: #295

A lot of Top Offense vs Top Defense Battles in the Sweet 16, let’s see which teams impose their wills on the games:

UConn (offense) vs San Diego State (defense)
Illinois (offense) vs Iowa State (defense)
Alabama (offense) vs Unc (defense)
Arizona (very efficient with both) vs Clemson
Duke (offense) vs Houston (defense)
Marquette (offense) vs NC State
Purdue (offense) vs Gonzaga (offense)
Creighton (offense) vs Tennessee (defense)
 
Dan Hurley with some words to the NCAA committee for only putting 3 Big East teams in vs Mountain West with 6 for example...he may be right..SEC has underperformed for sure. Still think it comes down to match ups and then on any given day a team gets hot or cold..its not the best of 7...ACC definitely has overachieved I think...its why its called Madness after all.
 
To be fair denver, the ACC usually gets teams to the Sweet 16 and beyond regardless of how the teams are seeded. The two most recent tournaments, the ACC has sent 3 teams to the Final 4 and 3 teams to the Elite 8.
 
To be fair denver, the ACC usually gets teams to the Sweet 16 and beyond regardless of how the teams are seeded. The two most recent tournaments, the ACC has sent 3 teams to the Final 4 and 3 teams to the Elite 8.

Maybe...didnt see NCst prevailing though and Clemson has been a surprise to me....overall its hard to judge conference strength by results in the tournament IMO....except the B10 which is always over-rated and underachieves :)
 
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Maybe...didnt see NCst prevailing though and Clemson has been a surprise to me....overall its hard to judge conference strength by results in the tournament IMO....except the B10 which is always over-rated and underachieves :)

The ACC wasn’t good this year overrall which we’ve all agreed pretty much. Yet the league is dominating in the Tournament. What’s the deal? falls back to what bull city said about how ACC teams tend to do well in the NCAA’s. That’s very true. When March gets here, the ACC usually seems to have a good run in the post-season. Which is why it’s historically the greatest basketball conference. (Albeit one flirting with an unknown future with these lawsuits)

The only major surprise is NC State. They came out of nowhere. Clemson beating Baylor counts as a smaller surprise but the Tigers can unload a trio of bruisers down low. You need Tylenol after playing Clemson so it’s not that shocking they won. Their late blunders allowed Duke to survive in Cameron and they won in Chapel Hill this year for just the second time ever. Clemson is a tough Basketball team.
 
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Dan Hurley with some words to the NCAA committee for only putting 3 Big East teams in vs Mountain West with 6 for example...he may be right..SEC has underperformed for sure. Still think it comes down to match ups and then on any given day a team gets hot or cold..its not the best of 7...ACC definitely has overachieved I think...its why its called Madness after all.
Did Hurley threaten to beat up anyone on the committee?

Big East not very impressive in NIT -- 4 of 5 invitees bit the dust in the first round (Providence, Xavier, Butler, Villanova).
 
I think it all comes down to officiating. If our game is officiated like they were in the Alabama/GCU & Houston/A&M games, then I think we're screwed. I was sore and tired just from watching. Bodies were flying everywhere. It was organized chaos.

Jon is really going to have to convince the kids how physical it will be. The Tennessee game will be a great reminder.

And we all know Sampson will be drilling Duke's lack of toughness into his convicts, I mean players.
 
A & M had 45 free throw attempts last night and did not take advantage. What I enjoyed watching yesterday was from the opening tip The Blue Devils were making it known to JMU that the Dukes were not going to get any easy layups. I know The Blue Devils laid out the Dukes plenty of times near the basket and made the Dukes earn their points from the free throw line. It was great to see! Would like to see the Blue Devils have the same intensity for the remainder of the tournament! Houston fouls Proctor, McCain, and/or Roach, our guards will make them pay from the free throw line.
 
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Shead is a beast...and a key for them...maybe if Mitchell is quick enough he can guard him...length wise and size wise that would give Shead a lot of issues...depends on if Mitchell is quick enough to stop him driving...I cant see Proctor or Roach covering him effectively
 
I didn't watch the full Houston game. Holy smokes, 75 FT's between them!?!?! Geeze. Shooting 65% on 45 attempts is brutal, hard to win a close game like that.

And Denver, speaking of Mitchell on defense he was really impressing me with his positioning and footwork on D. He rarely falls for a shot fake too which seems to be a lost art in CBB these days. He didn't shoot well and only had 2 points yesterday, but he made his presence known.
 
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I didn't watch the full Houston game. Holy smokes, 75 FT's between them!?!?! Geeze. Shooting 65% on 45 attempts is brutal, hard to win a close game like that.

And Denver, speaking of Mitchell on defense he was really impressing me with his positioning and footwork on D. He rarely falls for a shot fake too which seems to be a lost art in CBB these days. He didn't shoot well and only had 2 points yesterday, but he made his presence known.
True..keeping someone from scoring 20 is like scoring 20 of your own...cant recall if it was the guards or the inside players from Tennessee that just bullied us...either way, need to remind those players who were there for that game what happened...stoke the fire!
 
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I think it all comes down to officiating. If our game is officiated like they were in the Alabama/GCU & Houston/A&M games, then I think we're screwed. I was sore and tired just from watching. Bodies were flying everywhere. It was organized chaos.

Jon is really going to have to convince the kids how physical it will be. The Tennessee game will be a great reminder.

And we all know Sampson will be drilling Duke's lack of toughness into his convicts, I mean players.
It’s going to be physical, no doubt, but I don’t think we’re screwed if the refs let them play a bit. Jon knows this going in, and honestly every decent team we’ve played this year has tried to rough us up.

I believe he’ll have them ready for it, and I think their experience against it will help. But really, I think I’ve seen more dirty play against this team than any other Duke team I’ve seen since I’ve been a fan. Tennessee laid the blueprint last season(Barnes is a sack of garbage), let’s hope our guys show that it isn’t gonna work anymore.
 
Since we pretty much switch everything on defense, I’m afraid they will try to get Roach or McCain on Shead. That’s what coaching is all about, exploiting the mismatches. I hope Jon has a great game plan. Maybe we hedge and recover more. I would like to see us sag on defense and make them score from outside.
 
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I think it all comes down to officiating. If our game is officiated like they were in the Alabama/GCU & Houston/A&M games, then I think we're screwed. I was sore and tired just from watching. Bodies were flying everywhere. It was organized chaos.

Jon is really going to have to convince the kids how physical it will be. The Tennessee game will be a great reminder.

And we all know Sampson will be drilling Duke's lack of toughness into his convicts, I mean players.

I hope the Duke game is called exactly the way the A&M game was. If Duke shoots 45 free throws they blow Houston out. If I'm a betting man though Duke will be lucky to shoot 15.
 
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