Vols T logoRALEIGH, N.C. – The Mercer Bears introduced themselves to America early Friday afternoon when they took down perennial powerhouse Duke in the NCAA basketball tournament.
The Tennessee Volunteers were already well aware of the new darlings of this season’s tournament.
Nearly a year before the 14th-seeded Atlantic Sun Conference champions eliminated the third-seeded Blue Devils in their own back yard, Mercer knocked Tennessee out of the 2013 National Invitation Tournament with a 75-67 win in Knoxville in a game that hardly was that close.
The Vols and Bears will meet again Sunday with an NCAA Sweet 16 trip on the line.
“I remember last year they definitely executed their plays against us very well, and we didn’t really match their intensity,” Tennessee guard Josh Richardson said after the Vols dispatched Massaschusetts 86-67. “We weren’t very disciplined that game. They came in our own house and whupped us.