Sure, they only lost to VCU by 3 points ON THE ROAD, but on March 2nd, they ONLY beat #338 FIU by 3 points AT HOME.
Damn, they really miss Pitino down there.
Sure, they only lost to VCU by 3 points ON THE ROAD, but on March 2nd, they ONLY beat #338 FIU by 3 points AT HOME.
Why do we keep referencing Pitino beating them years ago and the gophers beating them under Tubby? It doesn't matter. These guys weren't playing. None of them. Coffey was probably in grade school.
I think all the experts are picking against us simply because we aren't on the same tier historically as the other five seeds. Notre Dame, Virginia, Iowa State are all pretty good teams the last few years. Since we have not had this success, it's an easy upset pick to jump on.
Love that we don't get respect though, lets stomp MTSU. They haven't played a team like us all season.
The Springs injury could be part of it, but I haven't seen it mentioned much, as well as the fact that a 5 seed is a tad generous for us probably, though not unreasonable IMO. I think we ended up favored against UCLA in 2013, in part because of an injury to one of their players.
If we'd advance to a game against N.C., we would still be "under the radar" and highly expected to lose that game of course nationally as well.
Why do we keep referencing Pitino beating them years ago and the gophers beating them under Tubby? It doesn't matter. These guys weren't playing. None of them. Coffey was probably in grade school.
I think all the experts are picking against us simply because we aren't on the same tier historically as the other five seeds. Notre Dame, Virginia, Iowa State are all pretty good teams the last few years. Since we have not had this success, it's an easy upset pick to jump on.
Love that we don't get respect though, lets stomp MTSU. They haven't played a team like us all season.
The experts are picking against us because they look for double digit teams that they can pick as upsets- it makes them look smarter and it makes things more interesting. I'd bet most of them haven't even seen MTSU play and if they have it's once. MTSU did it before so it's logical they can do it again. It's an easy pick for them to look good on.
I don't know who is going to win the game.
We might lose, but I'm not going to hide in a corner between now and Thursday expecting some team from Conference USA to come in and beat us after they've notched a total of 4 Top 100 RPI wins.
Looking past MTSU, I'm happy with our #4 seed in Butler. I haven't seen them play, but the fact they are from the Big East makes me feel good.
Agree, this team doesn't have the experience of past Gopher teams of playing in the humidity that MTSU will undoubtedly bring with them. They better bring plenty of extra Gatorade.
Grade school? You were making a somewhat legitimate point before you chose to exaggerate. Our beating them in the NIT may not have been with the same players, for either program, theirs might be better, but our's are not? And the point of Pitino's beating them just says that he's familiar with the coach and won't be intimidated having to play him. And we beat MSU this year, and we beat Purdue and Maryland, who has MTSU beaten? UNC-W? They've also lost to UTEP, Tennessee St and Georgia St. and those last 2 were home games. Gopher's haven't lost to anyone that bad.
What year did the Gophers play MTSU in the NIT? 2012. Coffey was a 9th grader. Sorry. I was off by a couple years.
I don't know who is going to win the game.
We might lose, but I'm not going to hide in a corner between now and Thursday expecting some team from Conference USA to come in and beat us after they've notched a total of 4 Top 100 RPI wins.
Looking past MTSU, I'm happy with our #4 seed in Butler. I haven't seen them play, but the fact they are from the Big East makes me feel good.
Butler is responsible for 2 of Villanova's 3 losses, beat Arizona, swept Marquette, and beat Cincinnati. They are 4-0 against the RPI top 25 and 16-5 against the top 100. They are a better team than us. That doesn't mean that we can't win, but it would definitely be an upset. If we do make it to round 2 and play them, they will be favored by a few points.
We're not actually concerned about the humidity in Milwaukee in March, are we?
Luckily Mason, Curry and Murphy are from the South
If we advance to the Sweet Sixteen, I don't care if UNC beats us by 25. We would have so far exceeded my expectations for the year.
This is Richards first trip to the NCAA tournament as a head coach.
Middle Tennessee | Seed: 12 | Region: South
A year after their upset of Michigan State as a 15-seed, the Conference USA champs got a dream draw. Minnesota really isn’t anything special; it lacks NCAA tournament experience that Middle Tennessee has; and if the Blue Raiders get hot like they did last year, the Golden Gophers won’t be able to keep up.
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/select...-favorable-march-madness-draws-010507652.html
Selection Sunday 2017 winners and losers: Which teams got favorable March Madness draws?
A full page of, "people are picking MTSU because they want to pick and upset" or, "they beat MSU."
The spread is now even (pick em). It's hard to fully trust the KenPom and Sagarin numbers on the smaller conference teams, but we should only be favored by 2 or 3 points according to those, and we are missing Springs. That's why people are picking them. They're good, and while we deserve a 5 with our resumè, most of those metrics don't agree.