Middle Tennessee Is Not Afraid

(St. Louis, MO) – Forget the names on the front of the jerseys. Forget the number on the seed line. Forget the records of accomplishment. Middle Tennessee is not afraid of Michigan State. The Conference USA tournament champions believe they have a legitimate chance against Tom Izzo and his physical Spartans.

Middle Tennessee is not a flash in the pan. Their worst win total in the last five years was 19 wins last season. At 24 and 9, the Blue Raiders are making their second appearance in the Big Dance in the past four years.

Head Coach Kermit Davis believes in an ariel assault. Middle Tennessee is 27th in the nation in three point percentage (38.7%) and Giddy Potts leads the nation with a 50.3% success rate from deep. They make just under nine triples per game.

Middle Tennessee comes into this intimidating situation battle tested. Davis’ squad was 8 and 5 on the road and 5 and 1 on neutral floors. They own impressive wins over Auburn, Belmont and Tennessee State, and over the last five seasons they have defeated ‘power 5’ conference teams UCLA, Mississippi (twice), Tennessee and Vanderbilt.

Davis says he’s reminding his team that while they respect what the second seeded Spartans (29-5) have done, they don’t fear the perennial Sweet Sixteen visiting Michigan State. Perrin Buford and Reggie Upshaw also comment on the overall game of all-American Denzel Valentine.

 

 

The NCAA Midwest Region starts play today in downtown St. Louis. Middle Tennessee and Michigan State tip at 1:45 local time.

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