Duke today is a tempting choice

Blue Devil remembers
For gutsier bracketeers, No.14 Mercer over No.3 Duke today is a tempting choice — perhaps seen as more plausible after the Blue Devils, then a No.2 seed,
were shocked by No.15 Lehigh in 2012.
Duke senior guard Tyler Thornton was on that team, one of the few veterans who experienced the wrong end of a Cinderella story. Only seven times since the
NCAA field expanded to 64 has a No.15 seed upset a No.2.
Thornton said he doesn't think about that Lehigh game, though he admitted the program has used it as a teaching point.
"Teams will get beat, thinking they're just going to win," he said. "This is a totally different team, totally different core group. We are going to try not
to experience anything like that this year."
But Mercer has the credentials required to pull off an eye-opening upset. The Bears are led by a potential game-changer in senior guard Langston Hall. Hall
has scored 20 or more points in 11 games this season, reminiscent of former Lehigh guard C.J. McCollum, who scored 30 two years ago vs. Duke. Mercer also has
played a few high-major teams in its non-conference schedule, including Texas, Oklahoma and Mississippi.
Perhaps most important, the Bears have five senior starters.
"That's a big benefit to us," senior forward Bud Thomas said. "We get to develop our friendship, both on and off the court, as teammates and roommates and
everything. We feel like we can beat anybody because of the four years we've had together and all the chemistry we've developed."
Camraderie breeds confidence as well. Because of it, none of Mercer's players seemed in awe of Duke and its tradition. Bears coach Bob Hoffman took a slight
jab at the Blue Devils, saying they weren't "a traditional power-conference team" because they didn't have a ton of size inside.
In short, a potential star player, experience and confidence make Mercer sound a lot like Cinderellas of NCAA tournaments past and present — like Harvard,
which pulled off its upset Thursday by combining a balanced offensive attack and staunch defense with poise (and made free throws) down the stretch.
"We were definitely the hot 12-5 pick," Harvard senior forward Kyle Casey said after beating Cincinnati. "But we were all really focused on doing our job. We
knew they wouldn't give us anything. We knew we'd have to go out there and still take this matchup. That's what we did."
Auerbach reported from Raleigh, N.C. Schroeder reported from Spokane, Wash. Contributing: David Leon Moore from San Diego.
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