ST. LOUIS — Middle Tennessee’s Blue Raiders proved they were bracket-busters when they upset No. 2 seed Michigan State on Friday. On Sunday, they will try to be zone-busters wh൲en they play 10th-seeded Syracuse for the righ🍬t to advance to the Sweet 16.
The Orange, seeded 10th in the Midwest Region, is known for the 2-3 zone defense coach Jim Boeheim has ಌused for years. It thoroughly frustrated seventh-seeded Dayton, which shot just 32 percent from the field Friday in losing, 70-51, to Syracuse in a mild upset.
The two ways to beat a zone are by getting dribble penetration or shooting over it. Middle Tennessee is capable of both. The 15th-seeded Blue Raiders (25-9) have the nation’s beไst 3-point shooter in Giddy Potts, who is converting 50.7 percent of his attempts. Middle Tennessee as a team has made 40.2 percent from deep over the secon๊d half of the season.
“The truth is they’re a really, really good offensive team,” B꧑oeheim said. “They made good plays when they had to, they made shots when they had to, and they did it multiple times when Michigan State came at them. They answered five or six times, and it was a different guy answering almost every time.”
Potts, a sophomore guard, had 19 points in the Blue Raiders’ 90-81 upset of the Spartans. He shot 3ꦏ-of-5 from 3-point range but figures to launch more over the Syracuse zone. Darnell Harris, a senior forward, also is dangerous, having made 40.4 percent of his 3-pointers.
“It’s always the shooters that we worry about,” Boeheim said.🀅 “And [Potts] is as good a shooter as I’ve seen. You really think it’s a mistake if h▨e misses.”
And it’s not just Potts.
“They don’t have a𓄧 spot that’s a weak spot,” Boeheim said. “We try to look for a weak offensive spot that our zone can not worry about too🍨 much. But they can score from all five positions.”
Middle Tennessee coach Kermit Davis said solving the Syracuse zone is the key to his team advancing, but he doesn’t want to live or die by his team’s 3-point sho𒐪oting.
“They guard🧔 the 3-point line,” Davis said. “You can’t fall in love with that and start shooting bad 3s. You’ve got to drive the ball. You’ve got to get paint touches ag꧟ainst the zone and hopefully good ball movement.”
Though few expected Middle Tennessee of Conference USA to defeat Big Ten Champion Michigan State, Syracuse (20-13) wasn’t caught off guard. Boeheim had an assistant coach, Adrian♛ Autry, scouting Middle Tennessee, focusing mainly on their offense against zone defenses.
“We know as much about them as we would know about any team in the country,” Boeheim said. “We’ve seen 10 or 15 different game tapes on them prior to this. So we’re as fa♏miliar with them as we are any team we’ll play in terms of what they do. Watching them in person, I think the biggest thing was you were just impressed with the talent level of their players.”
Rebounding also will be important. The Orange destroyed Dayton on the boards, 48-28, with Tꦕyler R♑oberson collecting 18.
“We need him to do that,” Boeheim said. “He’s letting himself down, and the team down when he doesn’t play like that. I mean, he’s not going to get 18 rebounds every game, but we need him to be active and to be eff🌄ective on defense and offense, especially rebounding the basketball.”
The Blue Raiders🅺 aren’t satisf෴ied with their 15 minutes after beating the Spartans.
“This team is hungry,” senior forward Perrin Buford said. “We feel like we’re a good team, and I’m glad tౠhat people are starting to recognize it. But it doesn’t put any pressure on us at all.🌱 We still have the same mind set and just want to continue to ride the streak.”