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Message: [QUOTE="auror, post: 3935818, member: 1329"] This Gonzaga team is on a tier as one of the 4 best offenses of the last 25 years by KenPom, alongside '99 Duke, '18 Nova, and '15 Wisconsin. Gonzaga has the most accurate 2pt% offense of the era, and it's not particularly close: 63.9% from 2. The next highest over the 25 years is 62.6% and only 5 other teams were over 60%. Symmetrically, '04 UConn had the 4th best 2pt% defense of the past 25 years by KenPom. Strength on strength. Certainly would be an intriguing matchup. Gonzaga just played the team with the best 2 point defense this season and a future top 3 pick who is an incredible deterrent in the paint and Gonzaga shot 58% from 2 on 45 (!) attempts. Drew Timme was 10-18 against the Mobley brothers. Naturally junior year Okafor is a better defender than freshman Mobley, but the way Gonzaga's offense is structured with the spacing, attacking in transition, and the off-ball cutting, it would be very difficult to keep them out of the paint. This is not a "Drew Timme backs his man down 1v1 and does a hook shot" paint offense. This Gonzaga team is the only team ever with 3 finalists for their respective positions for the Hoophall awards... and they actually had 4 (Cousy - Suggs, West - Ayayi, Erving - Kispert, and Malone - Timme). It's only been around 10 years, but it's also the only team ever with 3 players in the KenPom KPOY top 10. '04 UConn could absolutely win. Wouldn't be favored by Vegas, but I could see some sharp money on the Huskies. I give UConn the edge in depth. Gonzaga with the edge on offense, UConn the edge on defense. Timme v Okafor is obviously the headliner, but Suggs v Gordon is a heckuva fun matchup, 2 respective top 3 picks. Ayayi and Denham Brown are very similar players. Kispert has the edge on Rashad, but again, pretty similar guys. Nembhard v Taliek, battle of former 5* PGs, edge Taliek as a senior. Watson and Boone are also pretty comparable, although with strengths lying in different areas. One of the more fun hypothetical matchups to consider. But naturally Baylor is itself really, really good and could certainly beat Gonzaga tomorrow. [/QUOTE]

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