Saving my money for the final four. Been looking at plane tickets this morning. I’m a sick and twisted bastard.
Just looking closer into our region, and the only teams in our half that bother to crash the offensive class at all are South Carolina and Saint Peter’s. Creighton actually has an elite rim protector but they just don’t send him looking for second chances (good at defensive rebounding though). Six of our eight losses are to teams that are better rebounders than us (Kentucky and Kansas being the exceptions), so that’s nice from a matchup perspective. Creighton’s profile in particular is wild. They don’t try for steals or offensive rebounds at all, but they also don’t give up turnovers or second chances on the other end, and they rely on forcing low-percentage shots.
I'll worry about Creighton if we get there. I am more worried about coming out flat one time this week.
Texas plays moderately slow and is a meh rebounding team. Virginia and Colorado State are two of the slowest teams in the country and don’t even gesture in the direction of pretending to crash the offensive glass.
As popular as it’s become in some circles to shit on Barnes and his record in the tournament, he’s 8-0 all time in first weekend games as a 1 or 2 seed.
Fair. The trouble has come in those 3/11 games. Though, this is Tennessee…have we ever won a Round of 32 game in regulation as a 2 seed? (I admit this is getting into “what’s your record on the second Tuesday of February” territory but we have had some nail-biters)
Barnes won’t get as much flak this year if santi and jjj can hit some shots because we win if they can or at least don’t put up zeros. If they go 2-14 again we will lose. It’s time for us to make open shots and make a run. If Santi or JJJ can hit their first one, they will both shoot well. We, and many other teams, press when not making shots. They’ve been trying too hard to make them, it’s unnatural. It’s a mindset and hopefully last few days they get their heads right.