Ulis-Ferrell: Advantage Ulis. Obviously the closest matchup for both teams, but Ferrell is turnover prone. Ulis is the better floor general, better facilitator. About equal in scoring ability, but everything else is in Ulis' favor. Best PG in the country against probably the third best PG in the country. Will be fun to watch.
Murray-Ziesloft: Advantage HEAVILY in Murray's favor. Ziesloft is a good shooter, but Murray is elite. Both will hit threes in the game, but Murray will score 20+, Ziesloft will score about 8. Not close here.
Briscoe-Williams: Advantage slightly in Williams favor, but close enough to be a wash
Poythress-Hartman: Big advantage Poythress. Not even close here. Hartman is nothing more than a role player. Poythress should have a field day on him.
Labissiere-Bryant: Slight advantage to Bryant, only because Skal's production is unknown game to game. Could play great, could be invisible. Bryant is fairly consistent. Not overwhelming in the slightest, especially what Hoosier fans seem to believe. If Skal plays the way he played today, I would say this matchup is a wash.
Bench: Slight advantage to IU
IU's bench is nothing special at all, but considering they have a couple 8 PPG scorers and another guy with 4 PPG, I guess you can say they have a slight "edge." They have four guys getting a lot of minutes off the bench, whereas UK has just Willis and Lee getting consistent minutes. Humphries is valuable when he gets time, but it's never certain he even gets in the game. Matthews is playing well as of late, but again, his minutes are very inconsistent.
Again, IU's bench is not great by any means, only have more consistent minutes and combine for 23 PPG or so.
IU looked scary tonight, but they were hitting on all cylinders and shot 65% from the field on a team that played ZERO defense. Highly doubt they can match that offensive production, especially with a hand in their face.
Yes, IU is good. They looked really good. Playing better than a 5 seed.
But UK looked elite. Number one seed-elite.
I'll take my team.