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Message: [QUOTE="LStudfellow, post: 3488327, member: 5436"] Ok... time to spice up this debate with an opinion I have held for 13 years, but never put out here on this board because of how many of you will disagree with me... but hear me out. The 2006 team is actually our 2nd most overrated team of the entire Calhoun era. Individually, one of our most talented teams ever. But the whole was not nearly as great as the sum of the parts. In fact, I submit that only the 2012 team turned out to be more overrated. Here is my reasoning: Probably our most talented frontcourt, man for man, ever: Rudy Gay, senior Hilton Armstrong, Josh Boone, Denham Brown... heck, we had Jeff Adrien and also Ed Nelson, a former ACC Freshman of the Year now a senior, coming off the bench. Only one word to describe that group - Loaded. Backcourt - Marcus Williams, who was probably the best passing point guard we have ever had... but never very good as a defender. Rashad Anderson, one of our 2 or 3 best 3-point shooters ever... but then also a significant dropoff to Craig Austrie (although he was a huge stop gap as the starter while Williams was suspended). Definitely NOT our best backcourt during the Calhoun era... and it really came back to bite us in that Big East tournament Quarter Final loss to Syracuse as well as a few other games, like the Sweet 16 game vs. Washington we probably should have lost as well. Go back and look at how we finished that year - the loss to Syracuse, losing to #16 seed Albany for over 30 minutes in our first round game, struggling with Kentucky in the 2nd round, then luckily getting past Washington in the Sweet 16 after Rashad hit a 28-footer to force overtime when we had been down 4 with less than 15 seconds left. Then the loss to George Mason. Yes, it was a surprise... but not as big a surprise as everyone on here makes it out to be. We had not been playing great team ball for awhile, particularly on Defense. In fact, it was not a vintage Calhoun team in that regard at all. Too many on this board dismiss that. Sorry, but it was not only for one game or two we had not been playing our best. We had been playing well below our best for awhile at that point. I see people say often when that year is discussed in different threads on here that only if we had beaten George Mason we would have won that title, and not had much trouble with the Florida team that eventually won it. I have always disagreed with that sentiment. That Florida team played much better team ball than we were at the time - and I have always felt they would have beaten us. Yes, that 06 team had great individual talent, particularly in the front court. But our shortcomings in the backcourt, and lack of playing consistent, Calhoun-style lockdown man-to-man defense would have kept us from beating the team that was playing better all-around team ball at that time, Florida. [/QUOTE]

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