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Message: [QUOTE="bszbsz, post: 138529, member: 1741"] I want to say that first off, we need to GET to one of these teams. My biggest fear is, as always, a team going bananas from 3 and taking us down early in the tournament. Getting to any of these teams requires the elite 8 (at worst) and we haven't been there since '03 and before that since 1996 (it really is depressing)... Now that I have given my fair warning and total downer, I think that everything said prior has been true. The key is which team brings their "A" game. Also, in a close one, who scores at the end for us? Kentucky can get really cold from deep. That is how they lost to West Va. two years ago and they really stunk it up against UConn last year in the final 4. This team has those same issues. Kidd-Gilchrist has a funky release and Teague is just a bad shooter. They really do penetrate well tho, so they may get into the zone. I actually like this matchup most of the 3. UNC can actually really shoot it, but their big men are more finesse guys and do not like getting hit. The zone can cause Zeller/Henson problems because so many guys can swarm them and get into their space. Still, Kendall Marshall is such a good passer that he may sling the ball around our zone. I know they havent played against our zone, but he has been good when teams have gone 2-3 against them this season and last. OSU is a wild card. Sullinger has struggled against HUGE big men like Melo, because he is so skilled. Even tho Melo is MUCH improved, his bball IQ is relatively low. They do have some streaky scorers in Thomas and Buford. I think that Craft is very overrated offensively and will really struggle if we can sneak in passing lanes. Overall, can we beat these teams? Yes. Can they beat us? Yes. It really comes down to how prepared are they for the zone. When coaches know it is coming (aka the NCAA tournament) and focus solely on it, we have struggled. We seem to go down in round 1 and sweet 16 because teams have a WEEK to prepare (Marquette is different since they see us every year). So here is to hoping we play them in the elite 8 and final 4. Being a 2 seed may not be horrible for us if we get matched up against one of these teams in the elite 8 rather than the final 4. [/QUOTE]

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