Quote:
Originally Posted by NotReddBoiler
I love Tennessee in the Creighton matchup. Tennessee can throw Josiah Jordan James on Baylor Scheirerman. Tennessees guards in Ziegler and Mashak are way too athletic for Creightons guards and could force them into some turnovers. Knecht sucks defensively but he can guard Mason Miller, who hasn't attempted a 2 in 5 games and will allow Knecht to chill out on the perimeter and rest defensively. Tennessee has two really solid bigs to wear down Kalkbrenner.
And Creighton has zero answers to defend Knecht. Feel like a Tennessee blowout could be incoming.
I agree with this analysis. Creighton is talented, but really unathletic. They were awful against SDSU in the E8 last year, another team that is great defensively and athletic, like Tennessee.
The teams they beat in the Tourney last year (with Adj D ranking) were:
State (82), Baylor (107), Princeton (105)
This year:
Akron (98), Oregon (68)
By contrast, SDSUs Adj D was 4th, and Tennessee's is 3rd
Creighton has really benefitted from some great early round matchups that hide their weakness (lack of athleticism) , but could easily get exploited again here and it wouldn't be surprising to see them under 65 points. Creighton almost got lucky last year against SDSU, and only lost 58-57, but Tennessee has a much better offense than SDSU to go along with their great D, so I could easily see a 74-63 type win for Tennessee.
Of course, Creighton jacks a ton of 3s, and could get hot, but it seems like a pretty good spot for Rocky Top.