NCAA Tournament 2014

[DrKlahn]

Here's the early good/bad on America's Team:

Good:
Very experienced (they start all seniors, 5th in Pomeroy's experience rankings)
24th in effective FG%
No clear team weaknesses
49th in shooting FTs
Decent against high major competition (3 point loss to Texas, 2OT loss to Seton Hall, beat Ole Miss)

Bad:
No NBA-caliber star
Best player (Hall) is a shooter with a 3-point bias (198 3PAs, 148 2PAs). He is a good distributor, however. Probably needs the eye test to understand him.
256th in FTA/FGA, not an obvious threat to put Duke in foul trouble

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

Duke should be favored by 13 over Mercer.

Duke was favored by 12 over Lehigh.

 

[DrKlahn]

Of the four 14 seeds, Kenpom ranks are 78 (NCCU), 99 (Mercer), 113 (W. Michigan) and 119 (Louisiana-Lafayette).

So could be worse.

Central would have been so much worse, jeez

 

[dukeberto]

Undergrad and law school alma maters playing each other. Win win even when we lose.

 

[Topher]

MidWest Region by Kenpom rating

5 Wichita State
TBD

17 Kentucky
44 Kansas State

34 Saint Louis
66 NC State or 42 Xavier

2 Louisville
67 Manhattan

52 UMass
27 Iowa or 13 Tenn

7 Duke
99 Mercer

39 Texas
47 Arizona State

14 Michigan
184 Wofford

 

[DurhamSon]

fucking hate playing a team that starts five seniors. we're not gonna force any turnovers and they all know their roles.


I now expect us to blow a 15 point lead and win by 3 points

 

[2001Dukechamps]

Holy shit.

At first glance, it appears that we have two of the highest rated 11 seeds in KenPom history in the Mid-West. Looks like the committee wanted to make sure that we'd play a historically good double digit seed after UMass gets smoked by one of them.

Well it's been a fun ride guys.

 

[aiw]

 

[Topher]

Not that Louisville will lose but Duke got an easier draw than they did.

 

[DurhamSon]

Hall. He'll be the guy. On Rushmore with McCollum and Maynor. I can already see Quinn losing him now.

 

[aiw]

They took 721 3 pointers, we took 750 in the same number of games.

 

[aiw]

12 guys play 9 minutes or more.

 

[Topher]

They played eight guys 9 or more minutes in the ASun title win over last year's darling Florida Gulf Coast

 

[DukeCrow]

The best thing about our bracket is that we're in the bottom half. Who cares how loaded the top half is? We only have to play one of them if we get that far.

 

[Topher]

 

[Topher]

This is the battle we have with our nation. Pride over logic is stupid.

 

[DrKlahn]

Similar profile to Belmont, from the same conference, in 2008. I think that's the comp.

 

[aiw]

Adjusted tempo of the 2 teams is the same. We shoot the same number of 3s at nearly the same percentage.

 

[Topher]

Belmont had a worse defense though and we have no one with Gerald Henderson balls. Definite loss.

 

[bdotling]

DukiesRock: Duke 92, Mercer 66



Not really but none of you would be surprised