Welcome To St. BLUEIS ! Blue Raiders Shock Tourney

By
Clark Shelton
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Who out there had predicted this? Middle Tennessee coach Kermit Davis said at least one group had; the Blue Raiders had heard from a little girl back home who said her class had picked them.

“I’m sure they took it home to their mom and dad, and they laughed,” Davis said. “So we got one second grader in the e-mail that had Middle Tennessee in the second round.’’ —ncaa.com

Before yesterday only 7 -#15 seeded teams had beaten a #2. Now there’s 8. In a seeding that many questioned,#15 MTSU went to St. Louis and turned the city, arena, the tournament, and everyone’s brackets into a zoo…a Blue Zoo !

It was one of the biggest upsets in NCAA Tournament history. Brackets could be heard breaking all over the world. 98% in Yahoo had MSU winning. 64% had MSU in their Final Four. Give credit to MTSU , this wasn’t just a victory, it was a statement. Never were the Blue Raiders not in control of the game. They completely shut down Sparty’s key player Denzel Valentin.#MTSU , @_BlueZoo, @MT_MBB were trending all over the country. MTSU was the #1 trending both in Murfreesboro and in St. Louis. It was a special day, and possibly a precursor for things to come.

How The Blue Raiders Sent Home Sparty

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 The starting 5 were they key to the whole game. It was a team effort and a great coaching job by Coach Davis. All 5 starters logged lots of minutes and all 5 scored double digits. They outscored MSU in the paint 38-36. They held their star player Denzil Valentin to 13 points. A much deeper MSU bench could only put 13 points on the board. MTSU matched Sparty in second chance points, fast break points , and points off turnovers. MTSU never gave up the lead, their largest lead was at the 5:39 mark and was 13 points. They out hustled MSU on the boards 28-20. The biggest difference was that MTSU hit 11-19 3 pointers for an amazing 58% . MSU hit less than 50% 11-24/

You could mention any one of the young men as a key to the game. But, from this writer’s standpoint that was one of the most complete games of team basketball I have seen in a NCAA tourney in awhile. All 5 players on the court were in tune. Taking it a step further, Coach Kermit Davis can be as humble as he wants, but this was as great coaching job against a great coach. 

Up Next: ‘Cuse.

Syracuse comes in this year as an underdog also. That’s right an underdog. Seeded #10 , the Orangemen  came in and spanked Dayton 70-51, quieting many critics who thought they shouldn’t have gotten a bid. Led by another legendary coach in Jim Boeheim, the Orangemen will take on MTSU with a tip off time of 5:10 p.m. on Sunday. We will provide a preview tomorrow here on RutherfordSource.com.

 

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