Bilas Nat Champ pick

[ElGreco]

Bilas now has Arizona beating UConn in the title game. Stanford Steve wants nothing to do with UConn, thinks Iona's speed will expose UConn's lack of no true point guard.

 

[BigTenFan]

They are from the conference of champions

Are they still the conference of Champions when UCLA leaves?

 

[J187Money]

Never gets old.

Chills every time!!

 

[UCTitleTown]

I'm watching the 2004 National Championship on YouTube right now to get pumped.

People forget how talented that team was. Four great big men in Okafor, Boone, Villanueva and Armstrong (imagine any team having four great big. Two is a luxury), plus guards of Gordon, Taliek Brown and Rashad Anderson and Denham Brown coming off the bench. Crazy to look back now. Also seeing Okafor went out very early in the first half with two fouls and zero points.

 

[giddyup]

A true PG is our weakness, and great PG play tends to fuel deep runs. We seem to do pretty good notwithstanding we don’t have a great penetrating guard, but it sure we be handy.

 

[superjohn]

Bilas now has Arizona beating UConn in the title game. Stanford Steve wants nothing to do with UConn, thinks Iona's speed will expose UConn's lack of no true point guard.

I could've sworn Bilas picked Zona over UConn an hour ago but he just picked UConn again over Duke to win it all. It's weird how everyone on ESPN has UConn in the final 4.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

I could've sworn Bilas picked Zona over UConn an hour ago but he just picked UConn again over Duke to win it all. It's weird how everyone on ESPN has UConn in the final 4.

I think it's being prescient, not weird.

 

[tzznandrew]

I could've sworn Bilas picked Zona over UConn an hour ago but he just picked UConn again over Duke to win it all. It's weird how everyone on ESPN has UConn in the final 4.

His ESPN article had Zona over UConn when I read it a few hours ago. Still does:

National championship​

No No. 5 seed has ever won the national championship, or so Rece Davis told me on the Dirty Dog in between spine-rattling screams on the Screaming Baby Express from Greensboro to Bristol. I am going with Davis' wisdom ... or maybe it was the guitar-playing cowboy that told me that?! No matter, Arizona will win the Pac-12's first national championship since 1997, when Arizona won it under Lute Olson. Winner: Arizona.

Don't know why he's talking about a 5—rather than a 4-seed, which has won the title—but here it is.

 

[LIuconn]

Its tough to pick a team that wasn’t top 3 regular season in conference or hasn’t reached the final in conf tournament

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Its tough to pick a team that wasn’t top 3 regular season in conference or hasn’t reached the final in conf tournament

Neither of those things matter an iota starting Thursday so, given where UConn stacks up in basically every conceivable metric, it’s not as strange as our fans seem to think that other people have a positive impression of this team.

 

[RayIsTheGOAT]

Its tough to pick a team that wasn’t top 3 regular season in conference or hasn’t reached the final in conf tournament

Meh, that generally doesn't have a direct correlation to NCAA tournament performance.
The NCAA tournament is a different beast. It's win or go home. And this team has proven itself out-of-conference. We're 14-0 there.
I think we'll be even better in the Saturday/Sunday games, meaning, when a team has less than 48 hours to prep for us. We are a very difficult team to prep for on quick turnarounds, particularly when you haven't played us before. We proved that at the PKI against high end competition.

 

[HooperScooper]

His ESPN article had Zona over UConn when I read it a few hours ago. Still does:

National championship​

No No. 5 seed has ever won the national championship, or so Rece Davis told me on the Dirty Dog in between spine-rattling screams on the Screaming Baby Express from Greensboro to Bristol. I am going with Davis' wisdom ... or maybe it was the guitar-playing cowboy that told me that?! No matter, Arizona will win the Pac-12's first national championship since 1997, when Arizona won it under Lute Olson. Winner: Arizona.

Don't know why he's talking about a 5—rather than a 4-seed, which has won the title—but here it is.

Hedging his picks. Does he have a podcast where he picked Kansas?

 

[LIuconn]

Im hopeful but we’ll see. I doubt Hurley as a tactician

 

[ElGreco]

I prefer to be disrespected and prove the doubters wrong. "This is what happens when you ban us."... The team doesn't seem to believe the hype too much and it shows on the court.

Maybe we can do both- respected and win. Let’s do it

 

[ElGreco]

Never gets old.

Still gives me chills . Thanks for the attachment!

 

[ElGreco]

To be fair, they don't watch the games. The team hasn't been great in one possession games, and the team under Hurley is 0-2 in the NCAA as the higher seed. Now, I don't think a 10 beating a 7 is an upset (though 7s win 60% of the time), but losing as a 5 last year hurt. The team didn't look great in either of those games, either. 1 game is somewhat meaningless, 2 games can be variance, but it might be a trend.

I think the board is way too down on the team after the loss to Marquette by 2, but I get the skepticism given the team has never won any thing in the post-season.

Has Hurley? Yes, at URI he won an A10 tournament and won NCAA tournament games his last two years here—2017 as an 11 over a 6 (and almost beat 3 Oregon the next round), and then as a 7 (over Trae Young's 10 Oklahoma).

The team just needs the monkey off their back. I think they're very good, but I don't think they will likely win a title because (a) that's unlikely no matter the team, and (b) they haven't proven the ability to remain consistent in a close game under 5 minutes left.

BUT: if the refs call the games like they did pre-BE, and Jordan Hawkins finds his stroke, I'm very happy to be wrong.

We have all the ingredients less an elite PG and it took JC quite a few years to win our first but with some luck “I believe” there are no limits this year-just win the first and get the monkey off our back.

 

[ElGreco]

Are they still the conference of Champions when UCLA leaves?

 

[CTFIRERETIRED]

There were strong rumors that he would be the hire when Calhoun stepped down. It seems pretty clear Calhoun stepped down as late as he did to force Ollie into the position and hamstring an AD that was going to do a national search ending in Smart.

It seems pretty clear Smart would have been a huge success here. Would we have title #4, though?

thanks for that confirmation

 

[Travelman6]

This team is hard to read. At their best, they can win the whole damn thing going away, combine all 6 wins and it could easily be by 100+ points / last 5 could be 75+ points OR they could lose to Iona by 10 or 12 (if the team that blew a 17 pt lead to Shall or got their clocks cleaned @home to St Johns shows up) .... and everything in between and there really is no telling. If that team that beat Bama by 15 shows up, they win this without too much trouble.

I hope they come to play on Friday with their heads screwed on tight and laser focused.

 

[willie99]

Its tough to pick a team that wasn’t top 3 regular season in conference or hasn’t reached the final in conf tournament

Yet they all did pick UConn into at least the Elite Eight, except for Dook Vitale

 

[giddyup]

Im hopeful but we’ll see. I doubt Hurley as a tactician

Hurley can’t afford to fail early. Opponents better keep an eye out for Jeff Gillooly during warm ups.

 

[UCTitleTown]

It's so funny watching the difference between the CBS "experts" picking chalk and the ESPN guys that seemed to actually put real thought into their picks.

I'll be honest though. I'm not sure about all the love Alabama is getting. They are not a dominant team. There are many teams capable of winning it all this year, at least 12-15. Also, if Bama wins both the football and basketball national championships in the same year, an NCAA investigation is in order....

 

[NJHusky]

Neither of those things matter an iota starting Thursday so, given where UConn stacks up in basically every conceivable metric, it’s not as strange as our fans seem to think that other people have a positive impression of this team.

Followers of the team know it better than analysts who must know something about 30 teams so they can’t pay as much attention to one team. I doubt they know our record in close games. We know the good things but we also know the warts.

The 14-0 start book ended by the 8-2 finish is prob what most analysts are influenced by Imo.

 

[Khal Drogo]

Its tough to pick a team that wasn’t top 3 regular season in conference or hasn’t reached the final in conf tournament

2011 we finished 9-9 in Big. East. Ninth in conference.

 

[Umami Zen]

Nice to be back in the conversation about a deep Tournament run.. Been too long.. Showtime