Adult male icebear are up to 11' tall and 1000-1200 pounds. You know some pretty big humans.Well for sure. Do the math - one Icebear's body mass = two human players when it comes to setting a screen.
Yep, there are a lot of factors in certain years that can go into making the FF, or the NC, or winning it all. Cal was a decent team last year but in some years would have been lucky to make the Sweet 16 let alone the FF like last year. Baylor had a lot of talent last year but didn't make the E8. You can assemble a lot of great parts and not get far, or you can have decent E8 level talent and bust your way through to the NC like Louisville last year. Nothing is preordained when the recruiting classes are nailed down, and teams have a whole lot of free will in deciding how far they're going to go.
But Geno got KML to post up and play defense and Stewie to pass. As Jim Foster said, he "does more with more."
Sorry for being so late to the party, but OMG best post ever!
Yeah, it was. Part of the Joy of Cam.
IF KML was on Duke's team, I'm doubting UCONN leaves her open for 11 threes.
Eh, where is all that coming from? Louisville is #3 in Sags right now but has no chance of going to the FF even though they made the NC last year when they were rated around #13 going into the tourney? Like, are you expecting some kind of injury to occur to Shoni or did you post that after a few too many wet ones?
You beat me to it, Cam.
I think the major part of what "Duke needs" can't necessarily be resolved with half time adjustments or game adjustments. The coaching staff at UConn might tweak this a little or do that a little but primarily what makes them who they are starts in training camp. The relentless reinforcement of principles, the unwillingness to let the players have a play off, the demand for players to "strive for perfection", knowing that it'll never be attained but still the relentless search for it. To never be completely satisfied with your game because there's always something that you could have done a little better. When day after day, week after week you integrate these kids into that mindset, they're prepared for just about any contingency that could possible be put forth to them. They're less competing against Duke or Stanford or Louisville but more against themselves and that can't be something that could be thrown into a halftime coaches speech. You also have to have kids that are willing to buy into it because they've come to know what the rewards can and will be if they do so completely.
Of course the UConn kids would be who you'd have in your starting lineup if you could have either. The reason is more how they developed in the UConn program than who was the better players coming out of high school. If you had a choice of Williams or Dolson coming out of high school, I think most people here would have probably gone with Williams but Williams hasn't developed to any extent at all while Dolson has continued to improve exponentially every year. Of course you'd have to be an idiot to prefer Williams at this point. You might have taken Gray instead of her UConn counterpart out of high school but at this point, probably not. Again, it has to do with how they've evolved. I think this holds true for most or all of the Duke players who's development hasn't been nearly as impressive as their counterparts on UConn. KML and Breanna are two exceptional players who anyone in their right mind would have taken out of high school before any of their peers. But even then, you can see how much KML has become so much more rounded a player in the two years plus she's been under Geno's wing. Hopefully, we'll see Breanna's development being comparable to KML's.
IMO McGraw vs. McCallie will be another epic mis-match.
Sure, and Louisville won a few games after that choke job so it wasn't just a freak out, and being rated #3 so far puts them squarely in position to go back, which would be decidedly not freaky.
If UConn beats Louisville by more than they beat Duke, does that change your mind?
Cam, I feel your pain, RU has had lots of talent over the years and a Hall of Fame coach, but no NC. Sometimes I think it has a lot to do with team chemistry and too many talented kids not really buying into the coach's system, just doesn't work. In such situations, you would be better off with lesser talent, but kids who enjoy playing together and believe in what the coach is selling (i.e Butler on the men's side). IMO coach P is a decent coach, but not on the level of Geno, Muffet or even GG., but there really aren't many out there who are. Who would you like to see take over the program?