The NCAA Tournament is starting to get a little dramatic as Minnesota is on upset alert.
The NCAA Tournament hasn’t had an upset yet, but one is definitely cooking right now between Middle Tennessee State and Minnesota. The Blue Raiders have entered halftime against the Golden Gophers up 37-31 and have looked great doing it. A lot of these upset games are usually ugly contests where the good team plays poor and the lower seed plays just good enough, but Mid Tenn State isn’t fitting that all, nor should they.
Mid Tenn State dominated the C-USA this year with only a single loss to a conference opponent on the way to a 30 win year. Meanwhile, the team they’re playing is one of the biggest turnarounds in college basketball. Minnesota was awful last year and nobody expected them to be a tournament team in preseason. Let alone a high seed. In their first tournament appearance since the 2012-2013 season, there’s bound to be some inexperience on that roster. Mid Tenn State, on the other hand, is full of upperclassmen that advanced to the second round last year. This is a confident team.
RELATED: Updated NCAA Tournament bracket
So far everybody on the Mid Tenn State roster has scored and they’ve gotten some great production out of their bench. They’re also dominating the rebounding battle with 22 boards compared to Minnesota’s 11. However, Minnesota went 3-for-13 from 3-point range in the first half which seems pretty low for them. It’s also still a single digit game. Don’t be surprised if Minnesota turns it around and takes control of the game once again in the second half.
Minnesota may have been one of the worst teams in college basketball last year, but Richard Pitino and crew are obviously a skilled team if they can turn a season around as quickly as they have. They aren’t going to care about their seeding and let the pressure of being “upset” get to them. They’re going to come out in the second half composed and Mid Tenn State will have to be ready for that.