re: Tide Hoops | 31-6 (16-2)

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By no means should we look past them, and I think they are probably our biggest obstacle to the Final Four. But I also think that it's important to note the differences. I would argue that Tennessee is a better and much more proven defensive team than SDSU. And without any debate, Alabama is a far more consistent and better overall team than Duke has been this year.

In the Oklahoma game we proved we can lose to anyone on our worst night. Having said that, I think it would take one of our other worst performances of the season to lose to them on a neutral floor.

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Agreed - I've shifted my thinking the last few weeks that I think that outside of the teams that do everything well (Texas, UConn, Houston), the scariest matchup for us of a team that is really good but flawed is a team that has the ability to just go off shooting the ball regardless of how well you play defensively (Miami, Gonzaga).

We have nights where we don't shoot great, but we generally have a high floor offensively because we generate points in so many ways. However, our defense has basically been lock down on anybody who doesn't just consistently make tough jump shots for a long time now (outside of games where the other team rams into our chest 50 times and shoots free throws cough A&M). So, a team that defends at a high level but is just average/above average offensively still feels like a matchup I like a lot (assuming we aren't turning it over 25 times). A team that can go nuclear with nothing but pull up jumpers and put up 80 regardless of the defense effort scares me - because we can have a rough shooting night against any type of defense when we just aren't making open shots.

Just my thoughts. The only teams on our side of the bracket that even remotely fit that description are Creighton and Kansas State. The other side has 5 of them (Miami, Gonzaga + all around great UConn, Houston, Texas).