armchair
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The Vols are back in the NCAA tournament and will host Murray State in the 1st round. The tournament bracket was just announced. The Vols did not get a top 4 seed, unfortunately, after faltering late in the season with two losses to Vandy. The first-round game will be played sometime late this week--either Nov. 10, 11 or 12; I don't think it has been officially announced yet.
If the Vols win in Knoxville, they would travel to Orlando to play Central Florida, probably. I know little about them, but they are a 2 seed and beat North Carolina this year, and apparently have a good keeper. We have a good team and a good keeper too. If we were to beat Central Florida, we might play....florida in the third round (Sweet 16), also in Orlando. (Florida plays South Alabama in the first round.) I wouldn't be too excited about playing florida--first, because the gators tend to beat us; and second, because this being the NCAA it would be nice to play somebody new. So that is not a matchup that excites me too much--but the players will feel differently if we can win our first two games, and of course we don't want to get ahead of ourselves. If we were to get by florida, we might face off against South Carolina in the Elite 8, as they are in the bottom half of our quadrant. South Carolina won't have it easy, however, as they could face a pretty good Wisconsin team in the second round, and then might play 4th seeded Ohio State in the 3rd round. I think we match up much better against South Carolina than florida, but we'll see how things unfold.
The SEC got 9 teams in the tournament--more than any other conference. That is a credit to the depth of the conference and rather amazing, in my view. Alabama, which wasn't very terribly good this year and had a losing SEC record, got it, apparently because they had a top 30 RPI. Bama beat florida state early in the year, and I think that one win got them in. Arkansas also got in thanks to its SEC tourney win over South Carolina. The Hogs also had a losing SEC record. It's a little annoying, frankly, to see two SEC teams with losing conference records get in this year when we had a .500 conference record last year and did not get in. (What killed us last year is that we had a bad loss or tie, did not have a real quality win all year, and did not have a good RPI.)
South Carolina is a no. 1 seed, as are Duke, North Carolina and UCLA. Texas A&M, winner of the SEC tourney and second in the conference, got a 2 seed. I'm not sure they're that good--they had an /easy/ conference schedule this year--but we'll see.
In any case, it should be exciting--it is nice to host a game--and opportunity awaits for the Vols. Stay tuned for announcement of day/time for the first-round game.
If the Vols win in Knoxville, they would travel to Orlando to play Central Florida, probably. I know little about them, but they are a 2 seed and beat North Carolina this year, and apparently have a good keeper. We have a good team and a good keeper too. If we were to beat Central Florida, we might play....florida in the third round (Sweet 16), also in Orlando. (Florida plays South Alabama in the first round.) I wouldn't be too excited about playing florida--first, because the gators tend to beat us; and second, because this being the NCAA it would be nice to play somebody new. So that is not a matchup that excites me too much--but the players will feel differently if we can win our first two games, and of course we don't want to get ahead of ourselves. If we were to get by florida, we might face off against South Carolina in the Elite 8, as they are in the bottom half of our quadrant. South Carolina won't have it easy, however, as they could face a pretty good Wisconsin team in the second round, and then might play 4th seeded Ohio State in the 3rd round. I think we match up much better against South Carolina than florida, but we'll see how things unfold.
The SEC got 9 teams in the tournament--more than any other conference. That is a credit to the depth of the conference and rather amazing, in my view. Alabama, which wasn't very terribly good this year and had a losing SEC record, got it, apparently because they had a top 30 RPI. Bama beat florida state early in the year, and I think that one win got them in. Arkansas also got in thanks to its SEC tourney win over South Carolina. The Hogs also had a losing SEC record. It's a little annoying, frankly, to see two SEC teams with losing conference records get in this year when we had a .500 conference record last year and did not get in. (What killed us last year is that we had a bad loss or tie, did not have a real quality win all year, and did not have a good RPI.)
South Carolina is a no. 1 seed, as are Duke, North Carolina and UCLA. Texas A&M, winner of the SEC tourney and second in the conference, got a 2 seed. I'm not sure they're that good--they had an /easy/ conference schedule this year--but we'll see.
In any case, it should be exciting--it is nice to host a game--and opportunity awaits for the Vols. Stay tuned for announcement of day/time for the first-round game.
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