Looking at Middle Tennessee State

EG#9

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I don't believe I've watched a MTSU game this year, so I thought it would be helpful to have a thread on the Blue Raiders.

JaCorey Williams is their leading scorer at 17.3 a game, he's a 6'8 220lb Senior who also leads the team in rebounds at 7.3 a game

Giddy Potts is their second leading scorer at 15.8 a game and also chips in 5.5 rebounds a game. This is the guy that will hurt us without Springs as he's a very big/strong guard at 6'2 and 220lbs (he's a Junior). Potts also hits the 3 at a good clip 39.2% on the year.

Reggie Upshaw is their 3rd leading scorer at 14.5 a game and is second in rebounds at 6.8 per game. Upshaw is a 6'8 230lb Senior.

Outside of their 3 main guys, nobody on MTSU averages more than 5.8 points per game.

Need to find 6'6 Senior guard Xavier Habersham at the arc. About 2/3's of his attempts come from 3 and he's hitting a blistering 45.3% (only a little over 1 make a game though)

Initial biggest concern for the Gophers? MTSU appears to play 11 guys consistently as 11 guys have played in 28 or more games. Only Edward Simpson plays more than 20 min a game off the bench with 3 other bench guys playing between 8 and 13.

Not a shot blocking team: MTSU averages just 3 blocks a game with Upshaw leading the team at .9 bpg

KenPom has MTSU at 48 (The Gophers are pretty low on KenPom at 33)
 

Outside of their 3 main guys, nobody on MTSU averages more than 5.8 points per game.

Not sure if this is good or bad. But definitely looks strange.
 

I don't believe I've watched a MTSU game this year, so I thought it would be helpful to have a thread on the Blue Raiders.

JaCorey Williams is their leading scorer at 17.3 a game, he's a 6'8 220lb Senior who also leads the team in rebounds at 7.3 a game

Giddy Potts is their second leading scorer at 15.8 a game and also chips in 5.5 rebounds a game. This is the guy that will hurt us without Springs as he's a very big/strong guard at 6'2 and 220lbs (he's a Junior). Potts also hits the 3 at a good clip 39.2% on the year.

Reggie Upshaw is their 3rd leading scorer at 14.5 a game and is second in rebounds at 6.8 per game. Upshaw is a 6'8 230lb Senior.

Outside of their 3 main guys, nobody on MTSU averages more than 5.8 points per game.

Need to find 6'6 Senior guard Xavier Habersham at the arc. About 2/3's of his attempts come from 3 and he's hitting a blistering 45.3% (only a little over 1 make a game though)

Initial biggest concern for the Gophers? MTSU appears to play 11 guys consistently as 11 guys have played in 28 or more games. Only Edward Simpson plays more than 20 min a game off the bench with 3 other bench guys playing between 8 and 13.

Not a shot blocking team: MTSU averages just 3 blocks a game with Upshaw leading the team at .9 bpg

KenPom has MTSU at 48 (The Gophers are pretty low on KenPom at 33)

They upset MSU in first round last year so they have some Cinderella experience too.


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Someone in another thread asked about 3 point shooting. MTSU is 265th in the country at 6.4 made 3's per game. Minnesota is 289 in the country at 6.2 made 3's per game.

Not sure what to make of this stat as it could be argued that MTSU would make fewer 3's against better competition OR that they don't have to take 3's while storming to a 17-1 conference record. Either way, I think it's fair to say that 3 point shooting isn't a strength of MTSU.
 

Looking at their stats in 22/34 games they have started 3 guards who were 6-1, 6-2, and 6-2 when they put that lineup on the floor I don't know how they can guard Coffey. They do have another guy that is 6-6 that has started 12 games so maybe they try to use him more.
 


Common opponent:

Middle Tennessee State rolled Vanderbilt 71-48 just 5 days after the Gophers squeaked by Vanderbilt 56-52
 

no shortage of pundits picking mtsu in this one. not so much a slight against Minnesota, they just think mtsu is a good team
 


According to yahoo, Vegas opened the gophers up as a Pick'em vs MTSU


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Pretty sure Dicky V. just said MTSU is capable of making a deep run in the tournament. Makes them sound like a 2-seed.
 

I guess I asked do they play good defense? 58 percent of there points are twos so does that mean they are getting to paint easy with no shot blocker to send it in the stands? Lynch keep to game!
 



Listening to some gophers should stay home
 

Gophers opened a 1.5 point favorite

In comparison the other 5/12 matchups

Notre Dame -7.5 over Princeton

Iowa State -6.5 over Nevada

Virginia -8.5 over UNC Wilmington
 

Common opponent:

Middle Tennessee State rolled Vanderbilt 71-48 just 5 days after the Gophers squeaked by Vanderbilt 56-52

Shows how much we beat them up. :cool:
 

MTSU has THREE BAD losses, including TWO Home games. Their worst was a loss to #222 UTEP

They have just 2 Top 50 wins and 4 Top 100 wins.

Their best road win was vs #61 Belmont.

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.


My goodness, this Middle Tennessee St team is in no way on earth a giant killer. The press is lazy, they remember MTSU beat MSU last year and assume its a good bet to figure them to upset someone again this year. That just doesn't happen very often. How many Cinderellas do you know of that ended up making some kind of run in the tourney more than once? Gonzaga? Wichita St? Butler? Who else?
 

Also, Pitino beat Middle Tenn St to make it into the NCAA tourney before becoming the Gopher's coach. And Tubby and the Gophers also beat M Tn St the NIT semi finals.

Why should be we scared of them now??
 

Also, Pitino beat Middle Tenn St to make it into the NCAA tourney before becoming the Gopher's coach. And Tubby and the Gophers also beat M Tn St the NIT semi finals.

Why should be we scared of them now??

This is Richards first trip to the NCAA tournament as a head coach.
 

Bottom line. Week in and week out they play NO ONE close to the caliber we do. Not even debatable. We keep Reggie on the floor, Murph plays big on D & Amir stretchs their guards out, we'll be fine. The pundits are all in tizzy because of last year...we live in the now.


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Also, Pitino beat Middle Tenn St to make it into the NCAA tourney before becoming the Gopher's coach. And Tubby and the Gophers also beat M Tn St the NIT semi finals.

Why should be we scared of them now??

I very much remember the NIT game... We went into their arena and their fans were whipped up into a frenzy. I remember they were a relatively small but fast paced team with a bunch of confidence. We played hard and were fortunate to come out of there with a victory. It was a stark contrast to see a team that actually were thrilled at the opportunity to be in the NIT tournament compared to one of our previous NIT opponents that year (either Miami or Fl. St.) They just rolled over for us feeling they had been jilted by the NCAA tourney selection committee.
 

couldnt agree more

Bottom line. Week in and week out they play NO ONE close to the caliber we do. Not even debatable. We keep Reggie on the floor, Murph plays big on D & Amir stretchs their guards out, we'll be fine. The pundits are all in tizzy because of last year...we live in the now.


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If we can't beat this team we don't deserve to go any farther
 

I'm glad MTSU is getting so much hype. Makes the upset less likely. We certainly won't be taking them lightly.
 

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?
 

I really want to win this game after hearing the "experts" opinions. I think we will win as well.
 

Wow, it's sounding like we should just roll over and give them the victory right now.
 

I love how pretty much every "expert" has MTSU with a no-doubt win. I'd much rather play them than a team from a major conference. They've lost to some pretty bad teams and the toughest team they've played is probably Vanderbilt. Don't think they'll be able to match up with Lynch/Murphy.
 

In the Michigan State game MTSU shot 56% on threes and 56% FG %- if they do that again, so be it. I doubt that they do.
 

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?

Well if we aren't that special as a five seed then our opponent must really be nothing special being the twelve seed.
 

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.
 




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