NCAA Tournament: 12th-Seeded Middle Tennessee Takes Down No. 5 Seed Minnesota

In fact, MTSU may be the most deadly double-digit seed in the tourney.

Minnesota basketball has seemed to correct their off-court issues and the on court product improved greatly this season.

Minnesota leading scorer Nate Mason (15.5 per game) was also held in check.

“I told him when I came back in there that was the biggest shot of the game right there. It was really a well-played game by both teams taking care of it”.

MC: There’s no doubt that when things are going well in the classroom and socially, participating in sports is the fun part, the easy part. And the argument can be made that Middle Tennessee was underseeded, stronger than the typical 12, and Minnesota was overseeded. “They consider us a high-major team”. Florida is an elite defensive team, and their guards are going to make ETSU work, but I think the Buccaneers have a puncher’s chance here.

Middle Tennessee is much more than just Upshaw, though.

Middle Tennessee, a team I tried to warn you about all week, handled No. 5 Minnesota, 81-72. On Thursday, Middle Tennessee pulled off another upset, at least in terms of seeding, but it may have ruined zero brackets that didn’t belong to Minnesota fans. They tipped off just before Northwestern-Vanderbilt, and got the conference off to a mixed start.

Now, they stand on the verge of getting over that hump, but standing in their way is a team that is very similar to them: the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders. “I think we’ve surprised a number of people with the amount of success we’ve had at Butler”, Savage said.

“I joked before every game ‘I drove all the way out here”, Williams recounted, “so you guys better win'”. Florida State is really talented and insane athletic with a ton of size, but I just don’t trust them. It was a bittersweet end to his college career, especially after Springs played his first three seasons at Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

“It kind of threw their guards off”.

Princeton (12) was this close to upending Notre Dame (5) with a last-second three-pointer.

Twenty-four victories this season only set a bench mark for the next, with almost all of Pitino’s team returning and two talented recruits, plus a skilled transfer who sat out the season with an injury, expected to join them. Minnesota’s most risky three-point shooter this season was Akeem Springs, who suffered a torn Achilles in the Big Ten Tournament.

The two teams will battle on Saturday night at 7:10 p.m. CST, and can be viewed on TBS. They’re well-coached, control pace and tough defensively. What’s worse, a couple of Lynch’s fouls were not good ones.

“With the 1-3-1, there are going to be open opportunities”, Chrabascz said.

Look, the Big 10 had seven representatives coming into the tournament.

The Gophers will add two acclaimed freshmen to the backcourt in the fall: shooting guard Jamir Harris and point guard Isaiah Washington.

From 1985, the year the NCAA tournament expanded to 64 teams, through 2016, 148 teams seeded 11th through 15th won their first round games. MTSU lost to eventual Final Four qualifier Syracuse in the second round previous year.

No. 16 Mount St Mary’s vs. What Coach Pitino and that team went through last summer through that self-reflection, and not pointing the finger at anyone else, they committed themselves to not being in that situation again and it has paid off.