Ohio State is as balanced as a team could get, but they only go 6 deep. Evan Turner, aka Penny Hardaway 2.0, will have a tough time on the offensive side of the ball with Tennessee's J.P. Prince guarding him. Prince matches Turner's length and athleticism, and if Prince can lock up Turner then the Volunteers have a real chance of winning. Turner was horrible in the 2nd round with turnovers, as he had 9.
Like Prince, Ohio State's David Lighty will have a tough assignment in Tennessee's Scotty Hopson. Lighty is a shutdown defender, and if he can take Hopson out of the game then Tennessee will be forced to find another option on their thin roster.
This Tennessee team knows their roles and how to play them, and have rebounded well after losing soon-to-be NBA Draft lottery pick Tyler Smith. They have shown the capabilities to win against a better team, as they've beaten two #1 seeds in Kansas and Kentucky.
With that said I'm a little hesitant to take Tennessee in this matchup, because Ohio State wins the matchup battle and they'll have the best player on the court.
I'm going to say Ohio State in a close game.
Yeah, yeah they beat Kansas. Honestly, what I saw last Saturday was uninspired basketball from Kansas. They played like they expected to win, similar to Syracuse last night. Michigan State will not come into this game sleeping on Northern Iowa, and I'm sure by now they're sick of the way the media is overrating them.
Northern Iowa got by the first two rounds because of Ali Farokhmanesh's three pointers. First round he hit one with 4 seconds left to win and against Kansas he hit one with 34 seconds left to seal the deals. This team seems to live and die by the three, and that's not always good as we saw Cornell die by the 3 last night against Kentucky.
Michigan State will be without their heart and soul of the team, point guard Kalin Lucas. The Lucas loss will be huge for them as they move forward in the tournament. His backup, Korie Lucious, is not as good as him at distributing the basketball. The loss will hurt Michigan State in the next round, but not tonight. I think they had enough time to prepare for Northern Iowa without Lucas so they will be fine tonight.
I'm calling for an all Big Ten Elite 8, as I predicted from the start.
No comments:
Post a Comment