1. San Diego St: Head coach Steve Fisher’s best team was Michigan’s ‘Fab Five’ back in 1991. That team made it to the championship game in their freshman and sophomore seasons so Fisher knows what’s needed to take a team the distance. The Aztecs enter the tournament at 32-2 (both losses to BYU by 13 points apiece), and Fisher will rely on his experience to get San Diego St wins or actually just a single win; the Aztecs have never won a NCAA tournament game.
‘Being there last year is going to help us,’ Fisher said. Tournament coaching is a bit different as well according to Fisher. ‘In the tournament, you really can get away with a shorter bench because of the TV timeouts. They’re at least 45 seconds longer in the tournament; you get longer breaks. And that should help a guy like D.J. (point guard D.J. Gay), who plays so many minutes, and Kawhi (forward Kawhi Leonard) to catch their breath.’ Fisher also likes the fact that he has a veteran team. ‘And our senior leadership could be invaluable, as it has been all year. This group of seniors has played so long together they know the elements involved. They believe we’ll be able to continue doing what we’ve been doing.’
2. Wofford: The Terriers hail from Spartanburg, South Carolina. Admittedly, yes, we had to look that up. Wofford went 21-12 this year and got their automatic tournament bid by winning the Southern Conference tournament. The Terriers have experience with four senior starters who took Wisconsin to the wire in this tournament last year before losing 53-49 as 10 ½-point underdogs. And at their viewing party on Selection Sunday, the Wofford players were all high fiving when all the big-name teams kept going off the board. Then their wish then came through when their match-up with BYU was announced.
‘I think our style of play matches up well with them. A more athletic Big East team, I don’t think that match up would have gone as well,’ senior forward Noah Dahlman said. ‘We think Jamar Diggs is one of the best defenders in the country. Jimmer Fredette is the best player in the country. And for those two to match up will be great,’ senior guard Cameron Rundles said. ‘Last year we were happy to be in the tournament. We were there, like little kids in the candy store,’ Diggs said. ‘This year is more about the opponent, a team we can match up with.’
3. Cincinnati: The Bearcats’ match-up with Missouri brings contrasting styles. Cincinnati is more of a defensive minded, half-court team while Missouri employs the ’40 minutes of hell’ fast-paced tempo style of play. This game will be interesting to see which style plays out, and if the Bearcats will be able to enforce their will, or will they fall into the trap of the Tigers’ frenetic pace. There’s no secret as to what Missouri will do, but what Cincinnati does is the biggest question of all.
‘I say press them,’ said junior guard Dion Dixon. ‘I say see if they can handle it. They press everybody. Let’s see can they handle the pressure.’ Darnell Wilks added: ‘They’re no different than anybody else. Depending on what coach says, I think we should press them because that’s how we play. That’s what gets us going.’ Head coach Mick Cronin said this: ‘The question is are you going to be able to put the ball in the basket? They’re going to force you to play a little faster on offense, so we’ve got to practice doing that because if you try to hold the ball, they’ll steal it from you. The worst thing you can do against a team that comes after you is not keep attacking.’
4. Connecticut: The Huskies rode the magic carpet for 5 days and nights last week in Madison Square Garden. Connecticut won the Big East tournament as a # 9 seed so they had to win 5 games to hoist the trophy. They spent a lot of energy to win those games, so it will be interesting to see how fresh their legs are during their game with Bucknell. The Bison do not play at a fast pace so the huskies actually catch a little break in the tempo department.
‘This is the best league in the country right now,’ said UConn’s Kemba Walker. ‘For us to come out on top in this league, our confidence is high right now.’ Head coach Jim Calhoun called the 5 wins ‘as moving for me as anything I could possibly think of. Whatever we asked of them, they did.’ Connecticut’s lineup consists of 3 freshman, one sophomore and a lone junior in Kemba Walker. ‘You don’t have to have seniors,’ Walker says. ‘All it takes is work, and that’s what we do.’
5. Louisville: The Cardinals are gaining some steam as a ‘wiseguy’ pick to make a deep run into the Final Four. ESPN’s Dicky V is also calling for Louisville to make it to Houston citing ‘the magic of (Rick) Pitino is going to shock people’ as his reason. Vitale does have a point with Pitino as he is the only coach in NCAA history to take three different teams to the Final Four. Pitino has taken four different teams, Boston University, Providence, Kentucky, and Louisville to the NCAA Tournament. He’s been to 5 Final Fours in total and won a championship while at Kentucky.
But Pitino is concerned with Morehead St because of Kenneth Faried who he called the ‘greatest rebounder in the history of the game.’ Faried, who averages 14.5 boards per game, surpassed Tim Duncan as the NCAA’s leader in rebounding. ‘He rebounds more than our two centers and our power forward combined,’ Pitino said. ‘It’s a very difficult assignment for any team. Our Achilles’ heel has been rebounding, and now we have the best rebounder in the history of the game to go against.’ Pitino sometimes concedes that rebounding disadvantage to use a 4-guard lineup so it will be interesting to see if he employs that strategy for this game.
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