A 15 beat a 2 just last year when MTSU beat MSU. There's been a a few more to happen recently. Norfolk State over Missouri, Lehigh over Duke, FGCU over GTown have all happened in the last five years or so.

Won't be happening here though. I think Duke is the best team in the country right now now that Grayson Allen seems to finally be healthy, and their freshman stud Tatum is playing as well as anyone in the country. Add in the emergence of Jackson, and you have four players (Allen, Jackson, Kennard, Tatum) that are capable of scorching you from anywhere on the floor at any time. Duke is unguardable. I was surprised Troy was a 15 tbh, I thought they were headed to Dayton. I was hoping they would draw Gonzaga or someone. Not a knock on the Zags, I have them in the final 4 but that was still the best realistic matchup I could think up in my head for Troy.

When do you guys think a 16 will beat a 1? It's gotta happen one day

Does anybody here think Troy has a shot to take down Duke?

It's obviously a long shot. Troy has been playing unbelievably well though. This team did a complete 180 that started on March 2 against Arkansas State. During that game, I haven't seen a Troy team play so hard, know their assignments, have great communication, and set up an offense like I did then. Troy is 6-0 and has a average winning margin of 13 points since then.

Would love to see Troy set the world on fire with an upset win over Duke...

(03-12-2017 11:51 PM)FidelCashflow18 Wrote:  I think Duke is the best team in the country right now now that Grayson Allen seems to finally be healthy, and their freshman stud Tatum is playing as well as anyone in the country.

Let's just hope he doesn't act like an idiot and try to trip people again.

Watch out for that dude tripping and punching people Trojans. Especially if yall get out to any kind of lead.

(03-13-2017 12:31 AM)CardinalBlackTrojan Wrote:  Does anybody here think Troy has a shot to take down Duke?

It's obviously a long shot. Troy has been playing unbelievably well though. This team did a complete 180 that started on March 2 against Arkansas State. During that game, I haven't seen a Troy team play so hard, know their assignments, have great communication, and set up an offense like I did then. Troy is 6-0 and has a average winning margin of 13 points since then.

Would love to see Troy set the world on fire with an upset win over Duke...

Absolutely 0% chance. Very few teams have any type of chance to beat Duke right now. I think they're the best team in the country. I hope Troy does well and makes the Sun Belt look good, but I just don't see it happening. Troy has been playing unbelievably well, but so has Duke. Duke was losing by at least 10 points in the second half to top 20 teams three days in a row and came back every time. I'm no Duke fan, but this year besides Allen they are a fun bunch to watch. I'm a sucker for talent, and this Duke team has incredible amounts of talent especially on offense.

I really hope I'm wrong, but I just don't see it man. I'm picking Duke to win it all

actually, I think Troy can give them a good game, Duke isn't strong at all in the middle, they aren't going to throw 3 or 4 seven footers at Troy, they are a jump shooting, slashing team, and defensively, there is nothing there that should scare Troy, they should be able to get some really good looks at the basket. Troys main focus should be to keep turnovers to a minimum, slow the tempo down, eat up the shot clock, and play sound defense, I know its tough, but if they do this, they should be in the game late into the second half.

Duke -18.5 to open. Troy covers, but not by much.

I'm just happy to be here and If we won it would be icing on the cake.

Setting up for a great run next year with this team returning.

Good luck. I watched the entirety of the ACC tournament and Duke is playing on another level right now.

(03-13-2017 11:39 AM)moehler Wrote:  actually, I think Troy can give them a good game, Duke isn't strong at all in the middle, they aren't going to throw 3 or 4 seven footers at Troy, they are a jump shooting, slashing team, and defensively, there is nothing there that should scare Troy, they should be able to get some really good looks at the basket. Troys main focus should be to keep turnovers to a minimum, slow the tempo down, eat up the shot clock, and play sound defense, I know its tough, but if they do this, they should be in the game late into the second half.

There haven't been many points in the last 22 years where Duke has been strong in the middle. They are a perimeter shooting team that strives to capitalize on turnovers. They also generally have control of the pace of the game which plays to their advantage.

For Troy to win Duke will have to have a game in which they shoot for around 22% from 3 and less than 40% from the field. They have been liable to have down shooting games in the past but if Duke sticks around long enough, one of their shooters will get hot.

(03-13-2017 01:35 PM)ericsaid Wrote:  

(03-13-2017 11:39 AM)moehler Wrote:  actually, I think Troy can give them a good game, Duke isn't strong at all in the middle, they aren't going to throw 3 or 4 seven footers at Troy, they are a jump shooting, slashing team, and defensively, there is nothing there that should scare Troy, they should be able to get some really good looks at the basket. Troys main focus should be to keep turnovers to a minimum, slow the tempo down, eat up the shot clock, and play sound defense, I know its tough, but if they do this, they should be in the game late into the second half.

There haven't been many points in the last 22 years where Duke has been strong in the middle. They are a perimeter shooting team that strives to capitalize on turnovers. They also generally have control of the pace of the game which plays to their advantage.

For Troy to win Duke will have to have a game in which they shoot for around 22% from 3 and less than 40% from the field. They have been liable to have down shooting games in the past but if Duke sticks around long enough, one of their shooters will get hot.

Troy has shooters as well. This will be interesting to see if Troy's shooters show up.

sent using my HTC using Tapatalk Pro

that's my point, Troy isn't going to worry about matching their 6'8 225 center against Duke's 7'1 260 player, from a size standpoint, Troy matches up fine, I cant see Duke dominating the boards, and getting a large number of second chance points, the problem is are Troy's players quick enough to stop Dukes guards/fowards from driving to the basket, for a layup, or a kick out for a wide open 3. If Troy cant atleast contain the dribble penetration, then ya, this probably will be a blow out, but if they can keep them out of the paint, and play decent defense on the outside, then they can cause a lot of trouble for Duke. Defensively, Duke has been an average defensive team all year, nothing about their defense should scare Troy, as I said before they should get a lot of good looks at the basket.

If Troy does insane 3-point shooting like they did against us they can win.

Just wanted to come on and support a fellow Sun Belt member in the Big Dance! I'll be pulling for the Trojans to get the upset over the Blue Devils!

(03-12-2017 06:56 PM)Appdoggy Wrote:  As a UNC fan (in addition to my App fandom) please please please pull a Lehigh!

Go Troy!!! Hope they take those arrogant, flopping, floor slapping, man hugging, crybaby, yankee-want to be southern goofballs to the woodshed!

(03-13-2017 01:31 PM)ericsaid Wrote:  Good luck. I watched the entirety of the ACC tournament and Duke is playing on another level right now.

Dook always goes all out in the ACC Tourny. They won't shoot that hot every game in the NCAA. They will go cold for a game and get beat. Doubt it'll be vs Troy, but will be pulling hard for it!

(03-14-2017 12:04 PM)CoachWillRob Wrote:  

(03-13-2017 01:31 PM)ericsaid Wrote:  Good luck. I watched the entirety of the ACC tournament and Duke is playing on another level right now.

Dook always goes all out in the ACC Tourny. They won't shoot that hot every game in the NCAA. They will go cold for a game and get beat. Doubt it'll be vs Troy, but will be pulling hard for it!

All I have to say is that they were ranked number one going into the season for a reason. They are rarely a program that is going to mop the floor with each and every opponent all season long. However, as long as they beat UNC more times than they lose to them, all is well.

I don't pretend to have an affiliation to the school but I detest fans of UNC who have no ties to the program other than growing up in the state of North Carolina. I hope they lose in the first round...and if they don't, I hope they lose in the second, third and so on.

At any rate, good luck to Troy. Would be a good time to avenge the Belt not receiving two bids.

(03-13-2017 03:13 PM)EigenEagle Wrote:  If Troy does insane 3-point shooting like they did against us they can win.

That's what I was thinking. Troy shot 50% from 3-point range against App State, and 57% overall... Then turned right back around against Georgia Southern and shot 64% from 3-point range, making 14 of 22 shots... and shot 60% overall.

If Troy can replicate that again, they have a chance at beating Duke.

Troy's bread and butter though is feeding the ball to Varnado in the paint. If Duke stops Varnado in his tracks, Troy will be in big, big trouble.

Good Luck Troy!

(03-12-2017 04:39 PM)EigenEagle Wrote:  #15 seed? Come on...

I was worried we'd get a 16 seed play-in game. A 7th seeded team from a sub-ten conference...with 14 losses usually ends up in Dayton.

This is actually better news for the conference than I expected. Now, just go beat Duke.