Nah - IMO your opinion is not giving other great basketball teams their due. You say "granted they will be good" but for one thing a team like ND will probably be outstanding not just "good."
I'm giving them their due. They will be very good. There will be lot's of really good teams next year, especially compared to this year. ND, TN, Baylor, Texas, Maryland, even Duke should all improve and be good to really good next year. However not really really good like UCONN. They'll still be a step above.
Not so sure about them. Don't know if they will be any better than they are this year. They lose 2 starters including kind of their heart in Welch. And don't bring anything in. They'll be good, but I don't know if any better than they are this year. They will probably be below ND (again) and TN next year.
Thus imo you are marginalizing their ability to play way above their heads. A team like Villanova did that vs GTOWN. In that one game that one day -- our team is still "kids" or another word- "amateurs." Even the best of the best pros such as LeBron James feels pressure.
Well sure, anybody on any given day. But were talking about likelihood here. I think UCONN will be a better team and less likely to be beaten next year than this year, even with the improvements in other teams.
And I'm wondering why you mentioned to me Maya's and DT's teammates vs Stewie's. Did you think when I first mentioned them to you that I was comparing Stewie next year as a sr. vs DT and Maya as freshmen? I just don't understand why you are comparing sr Stewie vs freshmen Maya and DT.
I wasn't. I was comparing Stewarts teammates when she is a SR to DT and Moore's teammates, when they were seniors.
My point was freshman Wilson from USC and freshman Turner from ND - whichever meet UCONN in the finals is much more apt to be like freshman Maya and freshman DT than be like the freshman Stewart. IMO it's absolutely rare to count on a frosh to be so huge when you are facing an experienced juggernaut. USC and ND have to rely a ton on their frosh. That's too much weight on their shoulders in a game with so much pressure. This this year - it's a learning experience for them.
Ok, but that really doesn't have anything to do with next year? Yea, they'll be better next year, we've already established that. But they are still not going to close the gap on UCONN. IMO. And even if they do, I think next years team with Stewart and Jefferson as Sr's (better leadership than this year - nothing against KML and Stokes, they are just not great leaders) there will be less chance of a dip in UCONN that some team can take advantage of (i.e. Stanford game).
As Lobe said this year - USC has no shot to beat UCONN. They can't beat us because they can't score enough. One more year together -- there is absolutely no reason to completely disregard both kids as being potential big time impact weapons. Nova wasn't close to GTOWN but had experience. Nova wasn't that good of a team while GTOWN was awesome - like UCONN. IMO there is no reason to believe a potential awesome team in ND or USC can't play unreal like Nova did. History in sports teaches us that. Sure frosh could - like our amateurs did play way above their heads and defeated Russia in Hockey. But overall that extra year I think allows the two super frosh a better chance to play that one super super game - and as said throw in the lousy refs - next year they have a better chance.
Disagree. This year is their chance. It's not a good one, and I doubt they will be able to beat UCONN, but next year the chance goes down. For the reasons I have stated. While other teams will improve, their chance of beating UCONN goes down.
