Ranking Title Contenders among Sweet 16

#1
golfballs

golfballs

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#1
Florida Gators are best bet to win national championship - College Basketball - ESPN

1. Florida Gators
2. Arizona Wildcats
3. Virginia Cavaliers
4. Louisville Cardinals
5. Wisconsin Badgers
6. Michigan State Spartans

7. Tennessee Volunteers
Over the course of 18 SEC games, Cuonzo Martin's team outscored conference opponents by 0.14 points per possession. Customarily that's indicative of a team that can get to the Final Four. (In 2011, a Kentucky team that everyone kept yelling at for losing a series of close road games reached a national semifinal after outscoring the league by 0.12 points per trip.) In the case of this season's Volunteers, however, the question I had was whether a team that went 0-2 against Texas A&M could really be trusted to live up to its numbers.

That answer is inching closer to "yes." Certainly Iowa, UMass and Mercer don't comprise the toughest sequence this field can throw at a team, but give Tennessee credit. Jarnell Stokes is gobbling up offensive rebounds left and right, and Jordan McRae is shooting 15-of-25 inside the arc during the tournament. As I noted earlier this week, I expect the Vols' game against Michigan to be close, high-scoring and fun to watch.

8. Kentucky Wildcats
9. Michigan Wolverines
10. UCLA Bruins
11. Iowa State Cyclones
12. Baylor Bears
13. Connecticut Huskies
14. San Diego State Aztecs
15. Stanford Cardinal
16. Dayton Flyers
Click to expand...
 
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#6
#6
If we get past Michigan, I'm gonna go ahead and assume we will win the whole damn thing.
 
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#7
#7
Ironic that we're the 11th best team in our bracket, yet the 7th best in the entire tourney...
 
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#13
#13
Vols410 said:
Ironic that we're the 11th best team in our bracket, yet the 7th best in the entire tourney...
Click to expand...

That's not really fair to say.

We're the 7th best remaining team, as far as how we're playing right now. Some really good teams have already been eliminated.
 
#15
#15
If it's high scoring we lose.
Perimeter and transition defense, control the boards and moderate scoring in mid 60s, we win.
 
#18
#18
I agree that we should play at a slower pace, generally, and try to muscle michigan in the half court game. It will probably mean a close game, but that's ok. The longer you make them defend inside, the better than chances of drawing fouls. Also, it is harder for outside shooters to get rhythm in a slower-paced game, generally. We should run when we can, but we don't want an up and down the court game as that will mean a lot of open threes for them and we'd probably lose. Bang on them with the half-court game--it is our strength and a nice strength to have in NCAA tourney.
 
#21
#21
Problem is if we slow the pace and don't attack their zones, pressure, etc, we will be on our heels, lose momentum, and the d will lag as we have to force shots we don't want.
Nothing wrong with attacking every d we face and heading for the rim or feeding stokes with 18-20 seconds on the shot clock. We play better on both ends with that mentality.
 
#22
#22
espn just did a breakdown. Called Stokes the best big man left in the tourney. Interesting to note, in both the offensive sets they drew up, Stokes had the ball a little off the block with 20-24 seconds left on the shot clock and was able to face up and pass or went to the rim. We scored on both. I think it's imperative we get it to him that quickly as much as possible.
 
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