Oh, Mercer!
The Mercer Bears celebrate after defeating the Duke Blue Devils 78-71.
Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images
It’s
a bittersweet moment when Duke loses in the NCAA tournament. Yes, it’s
thrilling to see Mike Krzyzewski go down, but it also means we have to
wait until November for the Blue Devils to lose again. While we wait for
college basketball’s powers that be to invent a new March Madness
structure, one that allows Duke to suffer a devastating defeat, advance
to the next round, then lose again in a never-ending cycle of shame,
this is the best we can hope for. For the second time in three years,
the Durham, N.C., basketball factory/leadership institute has lost its
opening tournament game to a little-known school from an indeterminate
location. In 2012, they fell to tiny Lehigh. This year, it was the
Mercer Bears who slew the Devils, pulling away late to earn a 78-71
victory.
Josh Levin Follow
The
most surprising thing about the final score was that—in both a micro
and a macro sense—it really wasn’t that surprising. Before the
tournament began, Krzyzewski whined that the Atlantic Coast Conference
should “get more respect” from the NCAA selection committee. He
should’ve been stumping for the Atlantic Sun. The conference that
brought us Florida Gulf Coast’s Sweet Sixteen-bound Dunk City squad in
2013 has now furnished us with this year’s excellent Mercer team. While
FGCU turned basketball into performance art, Mercer—which is in Macon,
Ga., by the way—doesn’t transcend the game in any way. Rather, the Bears
are constructed in the small-school-ish fashion that’s traditionally
led to tourney success: They shoot a high percentage from the field, and
they’re very experienced, starting five seniors.
Duke’s
weaknesses aligned perfectly with Mercer’s strengths. The Blue Devils
had a moderately successful regular season, going 26-8, but their
defense was consistently horrible, ranking 98th in the country in
defensive efficiency according to Ken Pomeroy’s stats. (Earlier in the
season, Coach K’s crew got shredded by Vermont. Vermont!) They’re also
one of the nation’s most-callow teams, ranking 279th in on-court
experience according to KenPom.com. (By that measure, which looks at how
much court time goes to players of various ages, Mercer ranks fifth
nationally in experience.)
Advertisement
Friday’s
game played out as the statistics predicted. Mercer shot 56 percent
from the field, with seniors accounting for 65 of the team’s 78 points,
and the Bears had just eight turnovers, taking care of the ball as
veteran teams are inclined to do. More shocking than any of that was
that even as Duke’s biggest faults were exploited, the Devils were
mostly unable to capitalize on their biggest strength. The Duke offense,
ranked second in the NCAA in efficiency, shot just 36 percent from the
field against an average Mercer defense, with freshman star Jabari
Parker going just 4-14 from the field. (Duke stayed in the game by
shooting 15-37 on three-pointers, an excellent 41 percent.)
The
bigger picture here is that college basketball has become bifurcated,
with major-conference schools fielding more-talented, less-experienced
rosters than their small-time brethren. Duke has succeeded in the
one-and-done era by recruiting the kinds of not-quite-superstars who
stick around college basketball for three or so years. But the Blue
Devils program is more Calipari-ish in its reliance on young talent than
you might think. Duke’s rankings in on-court experience since 2007:
331, 295, 161, 69, 199, 223, 158, 279.
Down
in the bottom rungs of Division I, Mercer and its ilk spend years
building a squad, then bring it to the NCAA tournament when it’s ready
to flourish. According to KenPom.com, the 19 most-experienced teams in
the country (six of which made the tournament) come from outside the
sport’s power conferences. Among the country’s least-experienced rosters
are schools with a combined 29 NCAA championships: UCLA, North
Carolina, Arizona, Michigan, Texas, Kansas, and Kentucky.
Friday’s
Mercer-Duke game was almost an exact replica of Thursday’s biggest
upset, in which the North Dakota State Bison (20th in the country in
offensive efficiency, 23rd in experience) beat the Oklahoma Sooners
(84th in defensive efficiency, 305th in experience). These two victories
don’t mean that the small-school approach is superior (or that all
power conference schools play horrible defense). Both games were close
enough that the outcome could’ve swung either way, which is kind of the
point: a completely unequal system has created a perfect equilibrium,
one in which David sees eye to eye with Goliath.
In
the past 10 years, Duke has made the Final Four once and lost its first
NCAA tournament game three times, with all three of those losses coming
to schools outside the biggest leagues. (VCU and Eric Maynor took down
the Devils in 2007.) Actually, that’s the perfect equilibrium: So long
as Duke gets humiliated three times more often than it reigns
victorious, I think we can all agree that college basketball is working
beautifully.
The
Mercer Bears celebrate after defeating the Duke Blue Devils 78-71.
Photo
by Grant Halverson/Getty Images
It’s
a bittersweet moment when Duke loses in the NCAA tournament. Yes, it’s thrilling
to see Mike Krzyzewski go down, but it also means we have to wait until
November for the Blue Devils to lose again. While we wait for college
basketball’s powers that be to invent a new March Madness structure, one that
allows Duke to suffer a devastating defeat, advance to the next round, then
lose again in a never-ending cycle of shame, this is the best we can hope for.
For the second time in three years, the Durham, N.C., basketball
factory/leadership institute has lost its opening tournament game to a
little-known school from an indeterminate location. In 2012, they fell to tiny
Lehigh. This year, it was the Mercer Bears who slew the Devils, pulling away
late to earn a 78-71 victory.
Josh
Levin
Josh
Levin is Slate's executive editor. You can email him at sportsnut@slate.com, visit his website, and follow him on Twitter.
Follow
The
most surprising thing about the final score was that—in both a micro and a
macro sense—it really wasn’t that surprising. Before the tournament began,
Krzyzewski whined that the Atlantic Coast Conference should “get more respect”
from the NCAA selection committee. He should’ve been stumping for the Atlantic
Sun. The conference that brought us Florida Gulf Coast’s Sweet Sixteen-bound
Dunk City squad in 2013 has now furnished us with this year’s excellent Mercer
team. While FGCU turned basketball into performance art, Mercer—which is in
Macon, Ga., by the way—doesn’t transcend the game in any way. Rather, the Bears
are constructed in the small-school-ish fashion that’s traditionally led to
tourney success: They shoot a high percentage from the field, and they’re very
experienced, starting five seniors.
Duke’s
weaknesses aligned perfectly with Mercer’s strengths. The Blue Devils had a
moderately successful regular season, going 26-8, but their defense was
consistently horrible, ranking 98th in the country in defensive efficiency
according to Ken Pomeroy’s stats. (Earlier in the season, Coach K’s crew got
shredded by Vermont. Vermont!) They’re also one of the nation’s most-callow
teams, ranking 279th in on-court experience according to KenPom.com. (By that
measure, which looks at how much court time goes to players of various ages,
Mercer ranks fifth nationally in experience.)
Advertisement
Friday’s
game played out as the statistics predicted. Mercer shot 56 percent from the
field, with seniors accounting for 65 of the team’s 78 points, and the Bears
had just eight turnovers, taking care of the ball as veteran teams are inclined
to do. More shocking than any of that was that even as Duke’s biggest faults
were exploited, the Devils were mostly unable to capitalize on their biggest
strength. The Duke offense, ranked second in the NCAA in efficiency, shot just
36 percent from the field against an average Mercer defense, with freshman star
Jabari Parker going just 4-14 from the field. (Duke stayed in the game by
shooting 15-37 on three-pointers, an excellent 41 percent.)
The
bigger picture here is that college basketball has become bifurcated, with major-conference
schools fielding more-talented, less-experienced rosters than their small-time
brethren. Duke has succeeded in the one-and-done era by recruiting the kinds of
not-quite-superstars who stick around college basketball for three or so years.
But the Blue Devils program is more Calipari-ish in its reliance on young
talent than you might think. Duke’s rankings in on-court experience since 2007:
331, 295, 161, 69, 199, 223, 158, 279.
Down
in the bottom rungs of Division I, Mercer and its ilk spend years building a
squad, then bring it to the NCAA tournament when it’s ready to flourish.
According to KenPom.com, the 19 most-experienced teams in the country (six of
which made the tournament) come from outside the sport’s power conferences.
Among the country’s least-experienced rosters are schools with a combined 29
NCAA championships: UCLA, North Carolina, Arizona, Michigan, Texas, Kansas, and
Kentucky.
Friday’s
Mercer-Duke game was almost an exact replica of Thursday’s biggest upset, in
which the North Dakota State Bison (20th in the country in offensive
efficiency, 23rd in experience) beat the Oklahoma Sooners (84th in defensive
efficiency, 305th in experience). These two victories don’t mean that the
small-school approach is superior (or that all power conference schools play
horrible defense). Both games were close enough that the outcome could’ve swung
either way, which is kind of the point: a completely unequal system has created
a perfect equilibrium, one in which David sees eye to eye with Goliath.
In
the past 10 years, Duke has made the Final Four once and lost its first NCAA
tournament game three times, with all three of those losses coming to schools
outside the biggest leagues. (VCU and Eric Maynor took down the Devils in
2007.) Actually, that’s the perfect equilibrium: So long as Duke gets
humiliated three times more often than it reigns victorious, I think we can all
agree that college basketball is working beautifully.
Oh, Mercer!
The Mercer Bears celebrate after defeating the Duke Blue Devils 78-71.
Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images
It’s
a bittersweet moment when Duke loses in the NCAA tournament. Yes, it’s
thrilling to see Mike Krzyzewski go down, but it also means we have to
wait until November for the Blue Devils to lose again. While we wait for
college basketball’s powers that be to invent a new March Madness
structure, one that allows Duke to suffer a devastating defeat, advance
to the next round, then lose again in a never-ending cycle of shame,
this is the best we can hope for. For the second time in three years,
the Durham, N.C., basketball factory/leadership institute has lost its
opening tournament game to a little-known school from an indeterminate
location. In 2012, they fell to tiny Lehigh. This year, it was the
Mercer Bears who slew the Devils, pulling away late to earn a 78-71
victory.
Josh Levin Follow
The
most surprising thing about the final score was that—in both a micro
and a macro sense—it really wasn’t that surprising. Before the
tournament began, Krzyzewski whined that the Atlantic Coast Conference
should “get more respect” from the NCAA selection committee. He
should’ve been stumping for the Atlantic Sun. The conference that
brought us Florida Gulf Coast’s Sweet Sixteen-bound Dunk City squad in
2013 has now furnished us with this year’s excellent Mercer team. While
FGCU turned basketball into performance art, Mercer—which is in Macon,
Ga., by the way—doesn’t transcend the game in any way. Rather, the Bears
are constructed in the small-school-ish fashion that’s traditionally
led to tourney success: They shoot a high percentage from the field, and
they’re very experienced, starting five seniors.
Duke’s
weaknesses aligned perfectly with Mercer’s strengths. The Blue Devils
had a moderately successful regular season, going 26-8, but their
defense was consistently horrible, ranking 98th in the country in
defensive efficiency according to Ken Pomeroy’s stats. (Earlier in the
season, Coach K’s crew got shredded by Vermont. Vermont!) They’re also
one of the nation’s most-callow teams, ranking 279th in on-court
experience according to KenPom.com. (By that measure, which looks at how
much court time goes to players of various ages, Mercer ranks fifth
nationally in experience.)
Advertisement
Friday’s
game played out as the statistics predicted. Mercer shot 56 percent
from the field, with seniors accounting for 65 of the team’s 78 points,
and the Bears had just eight turnovers, taking care of the ball as
veteran teams are inclined to do. More shocking than any of that was
that even as Duke’s biggest faults were exploited, the Devils were
mostly unable to capitalize on their biggest strength. The Duke offense,
ranked second in the NCAA in efficiency, shot just 36 percent from the
field against an average Mercer defense, with freshman star Jabari
Parker going just 4-14 from the field. (Duke stayed in the game by
shooting 15-37 on three-pointers, an excellent 41 percent.)
The
bigger picture here is that college basketball has become bifurcated,
with major-conference schools fielding more-talented, less-experienced
rosters than their small-time brethren. Duke has succeeded in the
one-and-done era by recruiting the kinds of not-quite-superstars who
stick around college basketball for three or so years. But the Blue
Devils program is more Calipari-ish in its reliance on young talent than
you might think. Duke’s rankings in on-court experience since 2007:
331, 295, 161, 69, 199, 223, 158, 279.
Down
in the bottom rungs of Division I, Mercer and its ilk spend years
building a squad, then bring it to the NCAA tournament when it’s ready
to flourish. According to KenPom.com, the 19 most-experienced teams in
the country (six of which made the tournament) come from outside the
sport’s power conferences. Among the country’s least-experienced rosters
are schools with a combined 29 NCAA championships: UCLA, North
Carolina, Arizona, Michigan, Texas, Kansas, and Kentucky.
Friday’s
Mercer-Duke game was almost an exact replica of Thursday’s biggest
upset, in which the North Dakota State Bison (20th in the country in
offensive efficiency, 23rd in experience) beat the Oklahoma Sooners
(84th in defensive efficiency, 305th in experience). These two victories
don’t mean that the small-school approach is superior (or that all
power conference schools play horrible defense). Both games were close
enough that the outcome could’ve swung either way, which is kind of the
point: a completely unequal system has created a perfect equilibrium,
one in which David sees eye to eye with Goliath.
In
the past 10 years, Duke has made the Final Four once and lost its first
NCAA tournament game three times, with all three of those losses coming
to schools outside the biggest leagues. (VCU and Eric Maynor took down
the Devils in 2007.) Actually, that’s the perfect equilibrium: So long
as Duke gets humiliated three times more often than it reigns
victorious, I think we can all agree that college basketball is working
beautifully.
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