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Post by ohiopirate on Mar 14, 2018 8:49:56 GMT -5
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Post by biggreg1 on Mar 14, 2018 14:41:33 GMT -5
Well friends, in less than 24 hours it is my hope and a gut feeling pervades, that we will be celebrating.
Things have to break our way, of course. We have to play a very good basketball game — limit turnovers, box out and rebound well, and shoot a good percentage. Oh, and Love's minutes not be limited by foul trouble.
But one thing we can all be sure of with this team: They will play hard and fight for everything, every minute.
Raiders 68, Volunteers 65.
And if I am wrong, I will still celebrate a great season exceeding expectations and will look forward to what appears to be a brighter future still for Raider hoops.
But right now, I'm believing.
What score you got?
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Post by mrose on Mar 14, 2018 14:55:06 GMT -5
I believe WSU will easily cover the spread...I'll leave it at that.
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Post by ohiopirate on Mar 14, 2018 15:32:54 GMT -5
Feel oddly confident about this game. Not saying we will win but don't feel like its beyond realistic at all. Imagine the publicity for Wright State to be the first Cinderella team to win since we play one of the first games too. We can pretty much own the sports world for a decent period of time.
I'll say...
Raiders 72
Volunteers 69
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Post by hhgreen on Mar 14, 2018 15:41:11 GMT -5
Raiders 64
Vols. 56
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Post by BasketBallJones on Mar 14, 2018 16:10:05 GMT -5
Since 1986 in 128 games, the 14 seeds have 21 wins vs the 3, for a winning % of approximately 17%. I give our Raiders at least that %. They have a "punchers" chance to pull off the upset. Of all of the 3 seeds they could have drawn, this is the best one in my opinion. Playing on a neutral court at 11:40am Dallas time plays into an advantage for our guys. Go Raiders!
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Post by ohiopirate on Mar 14, 2018 16:34:49 GMT -5
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Post by bballraider on Mar 14, 2018 17:15:29 GMT -5
My quick and useless scouting report. :-) I was watching some games Tennessee has played this year, and from the small sample of games I've seen, they seem to run the same type of motion offense we do, with some slight variations. They do not drop a lot in talent when they bring guys off the bench. If we can keep the pace down, our 7 man rotation should be fine since we will be rested going into the game, This should keep us from wearing down against their depth. I see foul trouble as our biggest thing to watch. If the refs are calling it close, they can go a lot deeper in their bench with players in foul trouble than we can. But overall I think we can play with them and not get blown off the court. Our defense matches well with their offense. I think our bigs are big enough to muscle their two star forwards (who are very physical) and keep them from the basket until help can arrive on a double team. I think Everett Spencer will be key in this game as defensively he has the size and athleticism to match up in the post with them, and is quick enough to get them in foul trouble on the other end of the court. We should be able to keep them out of the lane with our typical pack line defense with some good week side help defense. The only thing I saw that I do not think we cover well (Cleveland state burned us on this numerous times) is when a player dribbles at the elbow/foul line and cuts hard to the basket with the ball off a screen at the top center of the lane. The player then proceeds down the side of the lane to the basket. Our best defender Hughes always seems to get caught up in the screen and was trailing the player to the basket and we typically didn't have any help on the backside, our other defender was caught to close to the screener and couldn't get back to help. I saw Tennessee run this very well in some of their games. I hope our coaches have a game plan for this. Here is a quick stat on 3pt percentages: I went back and checked Benzinger's 3 point shooting percentage when the Raiders had a 5 or more game break between games, and with rested legs he shoots almost 50% percent from 3 point range. Coles average goes up with 4 days rest to about 39%. While Hall and Hughes are slightly down from their normal average. I think Grant is going to have a great game, if Love is not overwhelmed by his first tourney game, and we can get at least 1 other guy to step up and the rest do their normal job, I think we will be able to play with Tennessee and could pull off an upset. That is assuming they are not hitting a high percentage of contested 3s. If they are super hot from 3, I'm not sure we can extend our defense and still keep the Volunteers out of the lane for easy baskets. |
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Post by fortwayneraider on Mar 14, 2018 17:35:43 GMT -5
Well I've got them in the Sweet 16, so they have to win tomorrow! I mean how can I pick against WSU?
I'm counting on Benzinger to have one of his lethal 3 days. And hopefully Tennessee will underestimate Love's abilities. I think Love could play in any conference.
Everything-the gametime, the location, etc-is set up for an upset to go down.
Like most other Raider fans here, I just hope WSU keeps it close, but I would be lying if I said I wouldn't be disappointed at least a little bit if they don't win.
I can't wait for 12:40 tomorrow!
If the amazing goes down tomorrow and WSU knocks out the Vols, I will have goosebumps lol.
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Post by hhgreen on Mar 14, 2018 18:18:34 GMT -5
I got us playing in the Sweet 16 against Cinci. I’m hoping Loyola takes out Miami so we can get a rematch against them. I think we can take Loyola this time.
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Post by fortwayneraider on Mar 14, 2018 19:15:00 GMT -5
I got us playing in the Sweet 16 against Cinci. I’m hoping Loyola takes out Miami so we can get a rematch against them. I think we can take Loyola this time. Same here. I have UC beating WSU. Hopefully if Tennessee does win they get beat in the next round so it has a minimal impact on my bracket. |
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Post by CincyDrummer on Mar 14, 2018 20:54:42 GMT -5
It is gonna be a late night/long day for me...Game doesn't start until 12:40AM here, but this is a once-in-a-decade event (hopefully not anymore!) so it's worth it in my book...added TruTV to my SlingTV package just for this game. Win or lose (I call Raiders lose by ~25, 68-43 Vols) I will enjoy watching WSU play on the big stage.
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Post by wsumanhouse48 on Mar 15, 2018 3:00:00 GMT -5
Feel oddly confident about this game. Not saying we will win but don't feel like its beyond realistic at all. Imagine the publicity for Wright State to be the first Cinderella team to win since we play one of the first games too. We can pretty much own the sports world for a decent period of time. I'll say... Raiders 72 Volunteers 69 ^This |
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Post by kingnebwsu on Mar 15, 2018 5:31:17 GMT -5
I wish we weren't playing opposite Rhode Island/Oklahoma as that's a game some people are calling the best of the first round. Hopefully that game is a blowout and ours is close to maximize eyeballs on WSU. Our guys deserve it.
6 hours until tipoff! I know I'm setting myself up for disappointment but it's hard to not be excited when your school is playing it's biggest game in 11 years.
Goooooo Raiders!
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Post by wsuairstrike on Mar 15, 2018 6:39:42 GMT -5
We will win. I won't be disappointed if we lose, I won't be disappointed if it's a blow out. I will only be disappointed if the team looks like they are willing to bow down to the Vols; and that won't happen. Upsets happen every year, why not us? Of course we are the underdogs and have an uphill battle today. But with Nagy in charge it's time to start believing we can pull this off. This team has been through so much, they deserve to advance. A close team that has each other's back is a dangerous team. I predict a close game, 72-69 wsu. We hit a 3 three to take the lead and never look back, similar to the GT game.
Safe travels to everyone today. It's been a hell of a season and I anticipate it will continue.
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