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We're playing UNLV in Omaha. If we win Kansas will be next. A seed of #9 I believe is are all time high. Believe it or not I don't watch other teams that much so what does everybody think about our chances against both teams?

burden Wrote:We're playing UNLV in Omaha. If we win Kansas will be next. A seed of #9 I believe is are all time high. Believe it or not I don't watch other teams that much so what does everybody think about our chances against both teams?

I'm not happy about the #9 seed, but I feel a lot better playing Kansas than I do playing any of the other #1 seeds.

This is the most disapointed field I have seen in years. To think that we could see an Ohio State-Florida championship rematch in the NIT! I am sorry, alot of those teams didn't earn the bids but to say the best 34 at large teams are in the field is a crock. South Albama doesn't deserve to be in this field over Arizona State. The fact is, the top 8-10 teams in the country will own this tournament. I will be shocked if 3 #1 seeds aren't in the final four. UCLA can go through this field blind folded. I just don't see a major upset. Elite 8 will be fun to watch but the first/second rounds, i just don't see a big upset here. The Vols are prob the only team I see going down early. I can see Butler and/or Louisville beating them. But this is a sad field to say the least.

If someone who has actually seen this team contradicts any of the following, I give way to their judgment. This is based solely on me quickly looking at their stats for the year.

Best Wins: BYU, Minnesota, @San Diego
Notable Losses: Arizona, Louisville

Ironic that their first reaction on their boards was to point out our best wins were St. Mary's, George Mason and Ill. St, and UNC hammered us. Ironic, since they got hammered by Louisville *at home*, and their only OOC win was San Diego. FWIW, they were 2-1 against BYU, winning at home and in the conference championship game.

Their starters:
F Corey Bailey 6'5...leading rebounder. It appears this is their inside guy.
F Joe Darger 6'7...more of a shooter than inside player. He's the 2nd choice in the offense behind...
G Wink Adams 6'0..is their go to guy on offense. Hopefully Mincy can shut him down.
G Rene Rougeau 6'6..... The other actual inside type player. Good scorer, it looks like.
G Curtis Terry 6'5...Senior PG. Outside shooter. Doesn't seem to be a great defender. Guessing he's a good passer though, with his APG.

Key guys off the bench:
F Matt Shaw 6'8...he's their big man off the bench.
G Kendall Wallace 6'4.....Not sure about this kid. Looks like he's just a backup guard who shouldn't see many minutes. CBS lists him as a key bench guy though?
G Mareceo Rutledge 6'3...Not listed by CBS as a key bench guy, but he's playing more than Wallace. Better backup guard who can shoot better.

So, we match up kind of strangely with this team, since Singeltary, Q and Scott match up well against all 3 of their 'big' guys defensively. My concern is guarding Terry, since he's the PG. That means someone quick (see: Fisher) has to guard him. He's tied for first in 3s for UNLV, so I'd be slightly worried about him being able to shoot over Fisher. Same concern on the offensive end them, if Fisher has a 6'5 guy on top of him all the time, it's going to be hard for him to do a lot.
That said, I don't think Fisher is really going to have to penetrate unless they play a lot of zone. UNLV just can't match up with us inside (wow, I never thought I'd be saying that about a team we'd play in the NCAA tournament). We should be able to hammer them on the boards.

Short version -- Q and Scott need to rebound. We need to not give up open 3s.

I'm not happy about the #9 seed, but I feel a lot better playing Kansas than I do playing any of the other #1 seeds.
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I disagree. Memphis is the weakest #1 seed in the tournament. There front court is weaker then Kansas. Kansas has superior guard play and athleticism which is our two strongest strengths. I think Kent State got so skrewed here. If we only beat BG, we could of gotten a 6/7 seed. UNLV is a possible win but won't be easy but anyone who thinks they can beat Kansas is dreaming. This was a shaft to Kent. A direct hit. That BG loss hurt us here.

Meet Mr. Mincy.

Quote:I disagree. Memphis is the weakest #1 seed in the tournament. There front court is weaker then Kansas. Kansas has superior guard play and athleticism which is our two strongest strengths. I think Kent State got so skrewed here. If we only beat BG, we could of gotten a 6/7 seed. UNLV is a possible win but won't be easy but anyone who thinks they can beat Kansas is dreaming. This was a shaft to Kent. A direct hit. That BG loss hurt us here.

Hey 22, do you have anything positive to say ? For crying out loud, we're in the NCAA Tournament, I say, NCAA Tournament. I love our chances against UNLV. Kansas has a knack for getting upset in the tourney. I say, who better then Kent to give them another early exit. While beating KU is a long shot, I've seen stranger things go down in the NCAA Tourney. Let's get em Flashes !!!

Just like St. Mary's outside game we have to hope their 3 pointers don't fall as surprisingly we have a team that can match-up with inside.

I'm saying that UNLV vs. Kent State is a pretty even matchup with a slight edge to us. I'm trying to think of the reasons why Kent State will beat Kansas, but the only thing that keeps coming to my mind is them against OU and Miami. Somebody help!!!

etc Wrote:If someone who has actually seen this team contradicts any of the following, I give way to their judgment. This is based solely on me quickly looking at their stats for the year.

Best Wins: BYU, Minnesota, @San Diego
Notable Losses: Arizona, Louisville

Ironic that their first reaction on their boards was to point out our best wins were St. Mary's, George Mason and Ill. St, and UNC hammered us. Ironic, since they got hammered by Louisville *at home*, and their only OOC win was San Diego. FWIW, they were 2-1 against BYU, winning at home and in the conference championship game.

Their starters:
F Corey Bailey 6'5...leading rebounder. It appears this is their inside guy.
F Joe Darger 6'7...more of a shooter than inside player. He's the 2nd choice in the offense behind...
G Wink Adams 6'0..is their go to guy on offense. Hopefully Mincy can shut him down.
G Rene Rougeau 6'6..... The other actual inside type player. Good scorer, it looks like.
G Curtis Terry 6'5...Senior PG. Outside shooter. Doesn't seem to be a great defender. Guessing he's a good passer though, with his APG.

Key guys off the bench:
F Matt Shaw 6'8...he's their big man off the bench.
G Kendall Wallace 6'4.....Not sure about this kid. Looks like he's just a backup guard who shouldn't see many minutes. CBS lists him as a key bench guy though?
G Mareceo Rutledge 6'3...Not listed by CBS as a key bench guy, but he's playing more than Wallace. Better backup guard who can shoot better.

So, we match up kind of strangely with this team, since Singeltary, Q and Scott match up well against all 3 of their 'big' guys defensively. My concern is guarding Terry, since he's the PG. That means someone quick (see: Fisher) has to guard him. He's tied for first in 3s for UNLV, so I'd be slightly worried about him being able to shoot over Fisher. Same concern on the offensive end them, if Fisher has a 6'5 guy on top of him all the time, it's going to be hard for him to do a lot.
That said, I don't think Fisher is really going to have to penetrate unless they play a lot of zone. UNLV just can't match up with us inside (wow, I never thought I'd be saying that about a team we'd play in the NCAA tournament). We should be able to hammer them on the boards.

Short version -- Q and Scott need to rebound. We need to not give up open 3s.

good stuff...just a bit more...
UNLV has six players averaging 6.8 points per game or more and is led by 6-foot junior Wink Adams (16.4), 6-7 junior Joe Darger (11.2) and 6-5 senior Curtis Terry (10.9), who are all averaging double figures in scoring ... 6-6 junior René Rougeau (5.9) leads the team in rebounding, followed by Darger (4.6) and 6-8 sophomore Matt Shaw (4.2) ...

Coach Lon Kruger has a Sweet 16 appearance, a Mountain West Conference Tournament title and a 30-win season in just his third year at UNLV in 2007.

Along with losing five seniors off last year's 30-7 NCAA Sweet 16 squad, the team is without four players that were expected to be big contributors to this year's squad [I beleive 3 left or were booted].

Defensively, UNLV has held 18 of its last 23 opponents to 65 points or less; has forced 14 or more turnovers in a game in 21 games this year. In 10 games this year, the Runnin' Rebels have held their opponents to 20.0 percent or less shooting from 3-point range.

UNLV has given up more than 69 points in a game just seven times this season.

In many ways, they sound a little like us...

Kent State is 1.5 point favorites, should be a good one.

It's a good sign we are a 1.5 pt. favorite. The bookies know a hell of a lot more than we do. Also why is everybody feeling sorry for Arizona St. They have an RPI of 82 for crying out loud. They don't even deserved to be talked about.
The talking heads on ESPN want to eliminate automatic bids (translation get Coppin St. out of the tournament). I don't fully agree but I sure wish the lower 15 conferneces would be required to send their regular season champion. They can't possibly make a lot of money on the tournaments. It's really a travesty when Coppin and st. Mary's of the Northeast Conference sneak in like that. Not because they made it but because a team who had a wonderful championship season did not make it. At least in the MAC you would have a 10% chance of an at-large.

Hey 22, do you have anything positive to say ? For crying out loud, we're in the NCAA Tournament, I say, NCAA Tournament. I love our chances against UNLV. Kansas has a knack for getting upset in the tourney. I say, who better then Kent to give them another early exit. While beating KU is a long shot, I've seen stranger things go down in the NCAA Tourney. Let's get em Flashes !!!
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If you bother to read my post, I am not being negative towards Kent State.. I am saying we got hosed! Kansas is a lethal team. So get your heads out of your asses and believe me when I say we got the shaft. Omaha may be the worst site chosen. Who wants to travel to Omaha? I mean come on. It's a hose job if I seen one. I wish we got the 7 seed or 10.

oldflash Wrote:good stuff...just a bit more...
UNLV has six players averaging 6.8 points per game or more and is led by 6-foot junior Wink Adams (16.4), 6-7 junior Joe Darger (11.2) and 6-5 senior Curtis Terry (10.9), who are all averaging double figures in scoring ... 6-6 junior René Rougeau (5.9) leads the team in rebounding, followed by Darger (4.6) and 6-8 sophomore Matt Shaw (4.2) ...

Oops, my mistake on the rebounding issue. I was looking at defensive rebounding only. I sorted through stats and was switching through about 3 different things.

oldflash Wrote:In many ways, they sound a little like us...

I disagree. They sound a LOT like us. This was my immediate reaction once I started digging up things on them. The main difference that I see is that they are much more dependent on the three than us.

Quote:If you bother to read my post, I am not being negative towards Kent State.. I am saying we got hosed! Kansas is a lethal team. So get your heads out of your asses and believe me when I say we got the shaft. Omaha may be the worst site chosen. Who wants to travel to Omaha? I mean come on. It's a hose job if I seen one. I wish we got the 7 seed or 10.

I also wanted a 7 or 10 seed. Who wouldn't ? You're just being so negative on such a glorious day for our Flashes. Oh, I can name 8 teams that cannot wait to get to Omaha.

Quote: The main difference that I see is that they are much more dependent on the three than us.

Kind of like the team we beat by 19 last night.

Kflasher Wrote:

Quote: The main difference that I see is that they are much more dependent on the three than us.

Kind of like the team we beat by 19 last night.

UNLV looks like it has a height advantage in the starting backcourt, tho, but Mincy seems to be able to disrupt size with his tenacity and quickness...and my guess is that UNLV has a more depth in their backcourt a real PG, and some class -- unlike the Zits...

The game will be in the second timeslot 2:40 - 3 p.m. Thursday. The times just moved on the AP wire. Realistically, Kent State isn't going to have a great chance against any of the #1 seeds. But I don't mind the possibility of Kansas. Bill Self's teams are always uber talented, but they have lost to worse teams in tournament play. The fact that they beat OU and Miami so easily might work to KSU's advantage.

UNLV sounds like it will be a good matchup. As long as the team plays as well as it has, it has a good shot for a win.

Funny they have no clue what time we play but pointspreads are out.

KStud Wrote:The game will be in the second timeslot 2:40 - 3 p.m. Thursday. The times just moved on the AP wire.

CBSsportline has it as 6:26 PM ET...http://cbs.sportsline.com/collegebasketball/schedules