As an assistant at Michigan State, Georgia Tech coach Brian Gregory helped the Spartans and coach Tom Izzo to two Final Fours, including one national championship. Before his hire at Tech, he led Dayton to two appearances in the NCAA tournament and three in the NIT. Gregory explains the change in tension in the second weekend and previews Duke-Michigan State.
For the most part, especially for teams that have been down this road before, like Duke or Kansas, one way that the second weekend is different from the first is that there’ll be no nervousness. Sometimes, those teams have pressure on them early not to fail. I think Kansas, Michigan State and Indiana all played a little tight last weekend. I don’t think they will this weekend.
It’s not that the pressure level ever decreases or that anybody in those programs is ever satisfied with just the Sweet 16, but if you make it to the second weekend, you’d be hard-pressed for anybody to say you didn’t have a terrific year.
The game I’m looking forward to the most is Michigan State-Duke, no question. No. 1, it’s two of the best college coaches of all-time and two guys that have built tremendous programs in every facet of the word. For Michigan State, point guard Keith Appling needs to play extremely well because what Duke is tremendous at is those runs that they go on. Those are usually fueled by turnovers or poor offensive possessions, so the point guard is so important to stop the run from getting to 12-0, 14-0, 16-0 and keep it to six points.
On Duke’s end, the question is, will they be able to guard inside without Mason Plumlee getting in foul trouble. Obviously, he’s a great player, so they need him on the court.
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