Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="FfldCntyFan, post: 5227455, member: 71"] I still remember that year vividly. On a different thread there was a discussion yesterday about the regional finals in Greensboro against UNC in 1998. After that game I was convinced that we would win it all in 1999 and never wavered. We were either one or two for the bulk of the year, and while Duke was also one or two, there wasn't any talk through a lot of the season that they were clearly better. In mid-February, due to personal reasons that I don't need to get into, I had to stop following pretty much everything going on in the world (outside of my specific personal sphere) for a couple weeks and when I was able to get involved again (around the start of the BET, which I had tickets to that went to waste), somehow Duke was allegedly the clear number one, among the best teams ever assembled and we were likely behind Michigan St (who we happened to have beaten handily that season). I have no clue what caused that but at the time I felt it was merely propaganda and to this day I still believe the same. Having watched a lot of basketball from late November to early February, I was convinced that we would not only beat Duke, but that we would surprise them as we were both faster and deeper than they were, two things they would have thought impossible goinig in to the game. The only advantage that I saw them having was that with Elton Brand, if it became an entirely half court, slow down game, they could score from down low a lot more effectively than we could. Going into the final four, I became furious when many talking heads were claiming that the tournament should reseed for the final four as it wasn't fair that the two best teams (Duke and Mich St in their eyes) had to meet in the semifinals. Yes, the press going in had this as a bigger mismatch than Tyson-Spinks and afterwards as a greater upset than USA-USSR in the 1980 Winter Olympics, but they were wrong on both counts. We were the better team. In an extended series (best of five, best of seven, whatever) we would have some out on top. I will go to my grave believing this (and even told that to Jim Calhoun, face to face once). [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach