- Joined
- Mar 24, 2017
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In the wake of the U Conn loss, some other upsets have been thrown out by various writers and broadcasters as being comparable, but I think most of these analogs have been ridiculous. This was not Chaminade vs. Virginia or Harvard vs Stanford, for example. Miss St was a #2 seed with 33 wins and big game experience and as Geno surely realized, was quite capable of winning Friday's game. Five Thirty Eight had Miss St's odds at 13%--1 out of 8. That seemed to me to be in the ballpark. This was not a 1/100 or a 1/1000 event.
Alexander Karelin vs Rulon Gardner was one of the upsets that was mentioned on the ESPN pregame show before the championship. Karelin had the long winning streak which gave him the invincible aura--but Gardner was not on the map before that match. Same with the the 1980 US hockey team vs the Soviets. That was boys vs experienced veterans/world champions--a much bigger upset than Miss St over U Conn. Villanova vs Georgetown was a better comparable, I thought. A veteran team playing a near perfect game to take down an overall more talented squad.
But I thought the best of all of the comparables was the Giants over the Patriots in 2008. The Giants were on a roll, and came in to the super bowl off of 2 big victories. They had recent experience playing the Patriots that they could use to their advantage and were very well coached, and had playmakers on defense who could interrupt the Patriots' great offensive flow.
I like the US Hockey team example for it's relevance to what Miss St faced against South Carolina: the big game right after the big game, climbing K2 after climbing Mt Everest. What that hockey team had to do--beat Finland right after beating the USSR, or see the first win come to nothing, is a much rarer thing in sports than a big upset. And I was stunned to hear on Sunday's telecast that Vic Shaefer had his team running rebounding drills on Saturday at such an intensity level that Doris Burke and Kara Lawson were actually worried someone could get hurt. They said Dawn just had her players do some yoga and that was probably a much better choice. When you have to sit Morgan William in the fourth quarter because she's not giving full effort, Morgan is probably just spent, and your hard practice from the day before didn't help. That kid has the heart of Secretariat.
Herb Brooks had the reputation of being ahead of his time on coaching and conditioning, and I was interested in learning what he did between the games. The only thing I could find on the internet said he was angry to find the team in the locker room laughing and signing souvenirs and that he then put them through a practice which was one of the hardest they had all year. If that's true, the US probably dodged a bullet. These days I think exercise physiologists who work with elite athletes are unanimous that when trying to peak twice within less than 48 hours, rest is much preferable to hard exertion.
Alexander Karelin vs Rulon Gardner was one of the upsets that was mentioned on the ESPN pregame show before the championship. Karelin had the long winning streak which gave him the invincible aura--but Gardner was not on the map before that match. Same with the the 1980 US hockey team vs the Soviets. That was boys vs experienced veterans/world champions--a much bigger upset than Miss St over U Conn. Villanova vs Georgetown was a better comparable, I thought. A veteran team playing a near perfect game to take down an overall more talented squad.
But I thought the best of all of the comparables was the Giants over the Patriots in 2008. The Giants were on a roll, and came in to the super bowl off of 2 big victories. They had recent experience playing the Patriots that they could use to their advantage and were very well coached, and had playmakers on defense who could interrupt the Patriots' great offensive flow.
I like the US Hockey team example for it's relevance to what Miss St faced against South Carolina: the big game right after the big game, climbing K2 after climbing Mt Everest. What that hockey team had to do--beat Finland right after beating the USSR, or see the first win come to nothing, is a much rarer thing in sports than a big upset. And I was stunned to hear on Sunday's telecast that Vic Shaefer had his team running rebounding drills on Saturday at such an intensity level that Doris Burke and Kara Lawson were actually worried someone could get hurt. They said Dawn just had her players do some yoga and that was probably a much better choice. When you have to sit Morgan William in the fourth quarter because she's not giving full effort, Morgan is probably just spent, and your hard practice from the day before didn't help. That kid has the heart of Secretariat.
Herb Brooks had the reputation of being ahead of his time on coaching and conditioning, and I was interested in learning what he did between the games. The only thing I could find on the internet said he was angry to find the team in the locker room laughing and signing souvenirs and that he then put them through a practice which was one of the hardest they had all year. If that's true, the US probably dodged a bullet. These days I think exercise physiologists who work with elite athletes are unanimous that when trying to peak twice within less than 48 hours, rest is much preferable to hard exertion.